- click to go back

THE STORY

Milovan Simišić (58)

Milovan grew up in Drvar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), studied in Belgrade and lived and worked in Germany for several years, on and off, now he settled in Belgrade. I had an exceedingly difficult relationship with Milovan, as he happens to be my father. After my parents divorced, we ceased speaking for two years. I did not even know where he lived. Now we talk regularly and the last time I went to Belgrade (2020) he invited me to show me his new apartment. There was something there that caught my attention: he had assembled a little collection of several items from my childhood on a cupboard. The shrine-like compilation consists of several items he took with him when leaving us. The items I want to focus on are a portrait of my 7-year-old self, and my first toy – a fluffy lion. I always remember him in the house sitting on his sofa chair, legs up on a little desk or cupboard, watching TV and drinking beer. He took that habit to his new house as well. Like my grandma, making a territory his own through a ritual.

Objects used to create the ritual and shrine: sofa chair, cupboard, beer, lion toy, portrait, TV

THE OBJECTS

THE SPACE

THE FIT

THE PERFORMANCES

Sint-Janshaven 557, 3087ED, Rotterdam Charlois

curtain-shirt with sleeping-bag-skirt-pants

and beer-bag