AUTHOR CV
Lucija Polonijo is a young new media artist and cultural worker from Rijeka. She graduated from Applied Arts (MA 2015) and Media Arts and Practices (MA 2017) at the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka. She worked at the Gallery SKC, Student Cultural Center of the University of Rijeka, and as the coordinator of the Kitchen of Diversity program of the European Capital of Culture project. While working in the Kitchen, she was engaged in implementing programs that cover various areas of cultural and social activities (literature, publishing, media, music, audio-visual activities, innovative artistic and cultural practices, gastronomy). Currently, she works at the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe (CAS SEE), UNIRI as a program coordinator, in NGO Akumulator, which she founded with her colleagues artists and as a producer of the international event Glowing Globe, Center for Innovative Media APURI. As an artist, she mainly deals with (video) performance, photography, installation, but her work includes other related media. She is exploring a personal, intimate performative act documented by video and photography presented in gallery conditions. Her artworks question gender, identity, media, and consumerism. Lucija has exhibited in over 20 group exhibitions and festivals, while her artworks are set as permanent exhibits in Lovran and Rijeka’s public spaces
SYNOPSIS
Minimalist, repetitive video performance carried by new media artist Lucija Polonijo explores the relationships between creating art and the individual’s basic survival in society. The artist examines the question: Who has the right to participate in the art (and culture)? It is hard to balance a full-time job with an art career; not many artists have the luxury of being able to leave their daily jobs. Moreover, a steady income, especially at the beginning of an artistic career, is essential as artists are mostly unable to support themselves through art. The artist starts from her own experience, working on many low-wage service jobs to study and pursue art. With this performance, she marked the beginning of work on a large culture project as a kind of intimate diary of her personal and professional development path. She performed on the last day of her waitressing job when she came to clean the cafe after the weekend shift and perform an intimate performance after a long artistic break. Lucija recorded part of the private performance (performance without the audience), and she edited the video material. She often uses her own body as a medium of artistic expression. In the act itself, she primarily strives for personal transformation, and only after that to communicate with the outside world. This performance is part of broader artistic research on the synthesis of art and life in order to raise public awareness that without culture and art, we cannot consider ourselves a developed society.
