Marina Gržinić
Marina Gržinić (16 November 1958, Rijeka) is a philosopher, theoretician, and artist based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is a prominent contemporary theoretical and critical figure in Slovenia. Since 1993, she has been employed at the Institute of Philosophy at the Scientific and Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts (ZRC SAZU). Since 2003, she has also served as Full Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Gržinić does innovative work in practice research, she is a collaborative video artist, and since 1982 has worked together with Aina Šmid, an art historian and artist also from Ljubljana.
In 1980s Ljubljana, Marina Gržinić was engaged in the constitution of what is generally known as the Ljubljana alternative or subcultural movement that was developing new artistic practices (like video and performance), politically engaged movements such as the gay and lesbian scene, and many other processes that were constitutive for the discussion of the position of art and culture in Slovenia. At that time, these activists demanded and struggled for a political, emancipated life that would bypass middle class bourgeoisie perceptions of Slovenian society and reality. Gržinić’s theoretical work is informed by contemporary philosophy and aesthetics after modernism. Her work is directed towards a theory of ideology, theory of technology, biopolitics/necropolitics, video technology and transfeminism in connection with the political aims of decoloniality.
Gržinić’s work cannot be easily circumscribed in this or that school or discipline, though in recent years, she’s brought to Slovenia an increased awareness of global critical philosophy, which is focused on considering the local, against racism, coloniality, and questioning the necropolitics of global capitalism.
Gržinić has been involved in many video film presentations and curatorial projects. A selection of her books includes: New Feminism: Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions (co-edited with Rosa Reitsamer, 2008), Necropolitics, Racialization, and Global Capitalism: Historicization of Biopolitics and Forensics of Politics, Art, and Life (with Šefik Tatlić, 2014), and Border Thinking: Disassembling Histories of Racialized Violence (editor, 2018). (2020)
Works[edit]
Books, catalogues[edit]
- Galerija ŠKUC Ljubljana, 1978-1987, Ljubljana, 1988, 39 pp. Special issue of Sinteza, 79-82. [1] (Slovenian)
- V vrsti za virtualni kruh: čas, prostor, subjekt in novi mediji v letu, 2000, Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 1996. Brings together post-colonial theory (Trinh Minh-ha), cyberfeminism (Donna Haraway), and the war in the Balkans to question the position of former Eastern Europe. Gržinić's thesis is that the critique of post-socialism or the post-socialist condition and the post-colonial theory have, primarily on the cultural level, powerfully intervened on the state of things. (Slovenian)
- U redu za virtualni kruh, Zagreb: Meandar, 1998. (Croatian)
- Rekonstruirana fikcija: novi mediji, (video) umetnost, postsocializem in retroavantgarda: teorija, politika, estetika, Ljubljana: Študentska organizacija Univerze, 1997. (Slovenian)
- Fiction Reconstruced: Eastern Europe, Post-Socialism and the Retro-Avant-Garde, ed. Springerin, Vienna: edition selene, 2000. From introduction. (English)
- Une fiction reconstruite: Europe de l'Est, post-socialisme et rétro-avant-garde, Paris: Harmattan, 2005. (French)
- editor, with Adele Eisenstein: The Spectralization of Technology: From Elsewhere to Cyberfeminism and Back: Institutional Modes of the Cyberworld, Maribor: MKC, 1999, 128 pp. TOC. With texts by Cornelia Sollfrank, Helene von Oldenburg, Claudia Reiche, Kathy Rae Huffman, Eva Ursprung, Margarete Jahrmann and Marina Gržinić. Review: Spielmann (Convergence). (English)/(Slovenian)
- editor, Marino Cettina Gallery, 2001 & 2007. Two catalogues. [2] (English)
- Estetika kibersveta in učinki derealizacije, Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2003. (Slovenian)
- Estetika kibersvijeta i učinci derealizacije, trans. Nebojša Jovanović, Zagreb: Multimedijalni institut, and Sarajevo: Košnica – centar za komunikaciju i kulturu, 2005, 228 pp. [3] (Croatian)
- Situated Contemporary Art Practices: Art, Theory and Activism from (the East of) Europe, Ljubljana: ZRC, and Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2004, 155 pp. A collection of revised recent texts, published in international magazines and anthologies. Discusses art projects by IRWIN, Tanja Ostojic, Emil Hrvatin, Laibach, Dragan Zivadinov, Ilya Kabakov, Oliver Ressler, Aurora Reinhardt, Walid Ra’ad, a.o. TOC. Publisher. Book launch. [4] (English)
- editor, The Future of Computer Arts & The History of the International Festival of Computer Arts, Maribor, 1995-2004, Maribor: MKC, and Ljubljana: Maska, 2004. [5] (English)
- Avangarda i politika: istočnoevropska paradigma i rat na Balkanu, Belgrade: Belgradeski krug, 2005. (Serbian)
- editor, with Günther Heeg and Veronika Darian, East Art Map Mind the Map! – History is Not Given, Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2006. A critical anthology based on the symposium. [6] (English)
- editor, with Tanja Velagić, Trenutki odločitve. Performativno, politično in tehnološko. Umetniški video, filmska in interaktivna večmedijska dela Marine Gržinić in Aine Šmid 1982–2005, Ljubljana: ZAK, 2006. [7] (Slovenian)
- New-Media Technology, Science, and Politics. The Video Art of Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid, trans. Rawley Grau, Vienna: Löcker, 2009. [8] (English)
- Re-Politicizing Art, Theory, Representation and New Media Technology, Vienna: Akademie Bildenden Künste Wien & Schlebrügge.Editor, 2008. Excerpt. [9] (English)
- co-editor, Utopia of Alliances, Conditions of Impossibilities and the Vocabulary of Decoloniality, Vienna: Löcker, 2013. [10] (English)
- with Šefik Tatlić, Necropolitics, Racialization, and Global Capitalism. Historicization of Biopolitics and Forensics of Politics, Art, and Life, Lexington Books, 2014. [11] (English)
- editor, Politika, estetika in demokracija, Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2015. [12] (Slovenian)
- editor, with Aneta Stojnić and Miško Šuvaković, Regimes of Invisibility in Contemporary Art, Theory and Culture: Image, Racialization, History, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. (English)
- editor, Border Thinking: Disassembling Histories of Racialized Violence, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2018, 308 pp. (English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek and Sophie Uitz, Opposing Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Turbo-Nationalism: Rethinking the Past for New Conviviality, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020, xiii+568 pp. [13] [14] (English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek, Sophie Uitz, and Christina Jauernik, Stories of Traumatic Pasts Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Turbo-Nationalism, Berlin: Hatje Cantz, Vienna: Weltmuseum Wien, and Vienna: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2020, 204 pp. Exh. catalogue. [15] [16] (English)
- editor, with Šefik Tatlić et al., Dialogues for the Future: Countering the Genealogy of Amnesia, Belgrade: Centre for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD), and Vienna: Academy of Fine Arts, 2020, 312 pp. [17] [18] (English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek, Theoretical-Critical Horizons Shifting Baselines, Ljubljana: Goethe-Insitut Ljubljana, Association Nagib, and Austrian Cultural Forum, 2021, 56 pp. (English)
- editor, Paralelne zgodovine opolnomočenja in urbanosti Slovenije 1980–1990–2000. Od ljubljanske subkulturne scene do novomedijske scene v Sloveniji / Parallel Histories of Slovenia's Empowerment and Urbanity 1980-1990-2000. From the Ljubljana Subcultural Scene to the New Media Scene in Slovenia, Ljubljana, 2022. (Slovenian)/(English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek, Re-Activating Critical Thinking in the Midst of Necropolitical Realities: For Radical Change, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022, 467 pp. Publisher. (English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek, Political Choreographies, Decolonial Theories, Trans Bodies, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023, 285 pp. Publisher. (English)
- editor, with Jovita Pristovšek, Slovenski punk in fotografija / Slovenian Punk & Photography: Overview Exhibition: Aspects of the Slovenian Punk Movement in Photography from 1977 to the mid-1980s, as well as the Period before and after Punk, Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC, Dec 2023, 125 pp. Exh. catalogue. Exhibition. Conference. Publisher. (Slovenian)/(English)
Journals[edit]
- editor, with Sebastjan Leban, Reartikulacija: Artistic Political Theoretical Discursive Platform, Ljubljana: Society for Contemporary Creativity HCHO, 2007-2012. Last two issues published as Deartikulacija, in English and Serbian. (Slovenian)/(English)
- editor, Pavilion 14: "Biopolitics, Necropolitics and De-coloniality", Bucharest: Artphoto, Jan 2010, 170 pp. [19] (English)
- editor, Identities 10(1-2): "Science, Media, Necropolitics and Bastard Trans-feminism(s) / The Post-Human, the Non-Human and its Political Revolt", Skopje: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2013, 140 pp, PDF. [20] (English)
Essays, articles[edit]
- "Osteuropa als der unteilbare postkommunistische Rest @: es ist nicht Rot, es ist Blut!" [Eastern Europe as the indivisible Post-Communist remainder @: it is not red, it is blood!], in Ost-West Internet: elektronische Medien im Transformationsprozess Ost- und Mitteleuropas, ed. Stephen Kovats, Edition Bauhaus, Bd. 6. Frankfurt/Main, New York 1999. (English)
- "Exposure Time, the Aura, and Telerobotics" in The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet, ed. Ken Goldberg, MIT Press, 2000. (English)
- "Video as civic discourse in Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia. Strategies of Visualisation and the Aesthetics of Video in the New Europe" in Culture and Technology in the New Europe: Civic Discourse in Transformation in Post-Communist Nations, ed. Laura Lengel, London: Ablex, 2000. [21]. (English)
- "A theoretical-political positioning of philosophy, media and cyberfeminism", in Technics of Cyber<>feminism <mode=message>, eds. Claudia Reiche and Andrea Sick, Bremen, 2002. (English)
- "Uselessness, Theory and Terror vs. Abstract Collaboration", 2005. (English)
- with Tjaša Kancler and Piro Rexhepi, "Decolonial Encounters and the Geopolitics of Racial Capitalism", Feminist Critique 3: "Breaking with Transition: Decolonial and Postcolonial Perspectives in Eastern Europe", 2020, PDF. Conversation. (English)
- "VHS as a Medium of Subculture", Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe, Oct 2020. (English)
Interviews[edit]
- Sally R Munt, "Interview with Marina Gržinić", Feminist Encounters 4(2): "East European Feminisms", 2020, 12 pp. [22] (English)
- Ondřej Trhoň, "Ve východní Evropě opakujeme krutost Západu, jen turbo rychlostí, říká filozofka Marina Gržinić", Radio Wave, 18 Apr 2022. Radio interview. (Czech)
See also[edit]
Links[edit]
- Website of Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid
- Gržinić in Video Data Bank
- Profile on AWARE (Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions)
- Profile on ZRC SAZU Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana
- ORCID
- Wikipedia