Weekend Art
Series of photographs by Aleksandar Battista Ilić
Performance by Aleksandar Battista Ilić, Tomislav Gotovac, and Ivana Keser
The ten-year performance project Weekend Art: Hallelujah the Hill (1995–2005) consists of a series of more than 5,000 photographs taken with a self-timer on Mount Medvednica, exclusively on Sundays. The project was dedicated to Adolfas Mekas’s film Hallelujah the Hills (1963).
Depending on the context in which it was presented, the performance was interpreted in radically different ways in Croatia, Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, and Japan. Readings ranged from viewing the artist’s appearance as de-ideologized and detached from political narratives to understanding the work as a radical political statement. The project consisted of marking toponyms on a mountain situated at the margins of social and political events, through a sustained performative action carried out without an audience.
Body Film Essay
Created by the informal three-member artists’ group XXXL—Tomislav Gotovac, Aleksandar Battista Ilić, and Ivana Keser—the performance Body Film Essay (2002) was inspired by classic films characterized by highly choreographed movements, commands, and group actions within the landscape. The films referenced in the performance include The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák, directed by Miklós Jancsó, 1967) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (directed by John Ford, 1949).
The performance focuses on choreography, movement, and the dynamics of giving and receiving orders.