Her name is Dea. We realized by chance that she used to be my first neighbor. Back then we were separated by only one wall. What was she doing back there, did she wake up at the same time as I did, and did she look out the window at this same landscape of run-down Belgrade facades?
We used to meet in the corridor, we would nod our heads or greet each other with a look. I thought she might be into photography, I don’t know why. She used to carry some colorful books and she used to wear equally colorful sweaters, coats, hats… I don’t know why I only remember her in a winter setting.
That random day came. It was winter again, right before New Year’s Eve, when we finally sat across each other. She was talking, and I was watching that film, she was carefully framing. Colors and shadows changed and slowly spread over our faces.
Dea is an artist, I was right. She creates while walking, while reading novels or watching movies, studying new sciences and methods, languages, alchemy, esotericism, psychomagic. She creates even when sadness breaks her down and tears start falling like rain, which she then begins to carefully collect and study.
Dea observes the world curiously and passionately. She knows the archetypes. Tarot cards. The more alert and emotional she is, the better her interpretations become. Tarot inspired her to create her own card designs.
At the closing of her exhibition a couple of years ago, she showed us what her tarot looks like, and she gave random visitors a special treat…
Because nothing is accidental. Probably not even that she knows who I am. She claims she can see it. She can feel my energy. Nine of Pentacles.
Dea breaks the established patterns of any conclusion about people or phenomena. It does not fit easily into any familiar framework. Because she herself changes frameworks and turns them into bold installations, performances, collages and drawings.
She is sensual and vulnerable, brave and defiant.
When emotions tried to escape from her intimate broken crystal, the Burn out performance took place. Hundreds of women gathered and with a collective scream caused serious reactions. Dea wants us to talk about burn out, to scream when we feel like screaming, for others who need to know that it’s ok to scream.
Instinct guides her and shows her the path. Her strong convictions and agitator spirit help her create miracles. Art book of poetry “That time you were unwell” is a collection of verses accompanied by visuals made from clippings from old newspapers. She did the first promotion of the book at the Kalenić market, because it is a place that makes her happy. There are ordinary people too, and poetry comes exactly from them.
Something else for the ordinary people is brandy. Hers is made of tears, and served at a promotion in a art gallery that has been transformed into a bar. Ah, if only they knew what she did to save and pack away those tears.
I would like Dea to be my teacher and sorceress at the Academy of Psychomagic. I notice Dea in the films she writes about, in female characters, archetypes of witches, seductress, magicians and scientists in a laboratory with test tubes in which emotions are collected by Dea’s selection and insights about the phenomena of love.
Dea, thanks for the magic, we will read tarot cards soon.
“Everything was beautiful, we just didn’t stop, everything was beautiful, we just didn’t know how”.
Dea Džanković is an interdisciplinary artist who provokes and attracts the attention of the artistic audience and the media. Her artistic practice includes various media, performance, installation, photography, film production, music and text. Her works are inspired by social conditioning, taboos and restrictions in the environment, exploring the effects of social conditioning on the individual and collective psyche.
