Ivana Momčilović

About:

Ivana Momčilović is a dramaturge, poet, researcher, translator and editor based in Brussels. She studied at Academy of Dramatic Art in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1986-1991). Her work is focused on the displacement of philosophy and art in various spheres of everyday life (co-founder of the Cultural Committee for 13 charged workers of the steel factory Clabecq and Renault Belgium in 2000; Cultural Committee for the Movement of Undocumented Immigrants, Belgium; artistic support for the "Universal Embassy" project, occupation of the former Somalian Embassy in Brussels by the undocumented immigrants).

She works on exploring the relationship between fiction and ideology, and the mechanisms of the (theatrical) estrangement effect (Verfremdungseffekt) on contemporary politics, researching relations between (aesthetic) education, art, politics (knowledge/institutional knowledge) and collective forms of human intelligence.

She is a founder of ‘Emigrative Art Collective’ (Belgium, established at the Festival Louvain la Neuve, Belgium, 1993 and expanded in Antwerp and Luxembourg, Kulturfabrik, Esche sur Alzette,  Capitale Culturelle de l'Europe 1995) dedicated to Yugoslav and non-Yugoslav artists who were against the Yugoslav war. She also founded ‘Edicija Jugoslavija’ (2009), samizdat focused on the theory and poetics of emancipation and equality, publishing the work of contemporary theoreticians, philosophers and Yugoslav surrealists.

She co-translated Of an Obscure Disaster by Alain Badiou, published by Jan Van Eyck, Academie in Maastricht (2009), as well as other books by Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière in Serbo-Croatian (2009-2016).

She initiated a number of philosophical lectures entitled ‘In the fold of the present’ with the participation of the French philosophers Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, Natacha Michel, Bernard Stiegler (2007/2008), starting with ‘theoretical preludes and fugues’, at the Palace of Fine Arts (Palais des Beaux-Arts), Brussels and many other experimental forms of sharing knowledge (including "Fiction of Memory" – a project done at the Free University of Brussels 2011/2012 in collaboration with the Department of History and Political Science).

She gave courses (experimental aesthetic education) at several academies of fine arts and state educational institutions (Free University, Brussels; Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels and Helsinki; several public schools in Belgium, on the remote island of Vis, Croatia and at refugee centers in Serbia and Belgium).

Since 2015 she has been working as part of Phd in One Night on the alphabetization (second language) of refugees (Belgium, Serbia) through art practice (contemporary dance, collages). Last work : Indisciplinary Symphony" (course about the inexplicable)- collective creation/ Uniarts Helsinki ( 2019), “The Music Movement research for One Book” (La Bellone, March 2017), the  evening dedicated to the “Modern Times”, book of Jacques Rancière that Edicija Jugoslavija co-published ( March 2017, engl) and film ( coming soon) “Poems from which we learned”, sensible archive of Phd in One Night researches, including Kuva and Hiap gathering (June 2016).

Her current works (selection) include ‘Phd in One Night’ – education through aesthetics (since 2007), ‘Interruption’ – research about interruptions in the public field (2013) and "On Uncertain Knowledge and Revolution" (a book in preparation). 

https://www.hiap.fi/collaboration/indisciplinary-symphony/

https://www.hiap.fi/indisciplinary-symphonies-and-poetry-for-learning/

Profile Photo Credit: Manuella de Tervarent

Date of residency 1. 10. 2019 - 31. 10. 2019