Opening of the exhibition Under the Tuck by Marijo Zupanov, accompanied with a performative guided tour of the exhibition by co-curator Mentalika

in Slovene language

Tuesday, 5 April at 7 pm

Alkatraz Gallery

ACC Metelkova Mesto

1000 Ljubljana

The second exhibition of the 23rd International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns in the Alkatraz Gallery, Under the Tuck is a series of conceptual photo portraits of drag queens, shown through the candid image of tucking. Drag queens use the technique in order to hide the visibility of genitals, not to ‘disturb’ the overall appearance of the silhouette of their performative persona. Each queen has mastered their approach, and Marijo Zupanov’s photo series presents their identity through a chosen motif. The artist seeks for the perfection of the moment in the imperfection of the costume and reveals secrets of each queen individually. He prefers to devote himself to the time in backstage when the queens are getting ready, and pay special attention to the de-drag moments when the ‘perfection’ of the costume falls apart. It is in this disintegration of the holistic visual image intended for the public that Zupanov seeks and finds the sincerest moments that reveal the beauty of perfomative engagement and drag culture, and its destabilizing influence on heteronormativity and patriarchal hegemony.

The co-curator of the exhibition, Mentalika, Ljubljana’s drag queen, activist, main organizer of Dragoslavia and co-founder of the House of Dynasty, will also help viewers to see and understand the latter. As part of the exhibition, she will also conduct a performative tour of the exhibition. Get ready for a special experience that will bring you closer to drag art and confront you with its activist charge!

Marijo Zupanov (1989), graduated in 2014 from the Department of Visual Communication Design, majoring in Photography, at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, where he is currently completing a master’s degree in the same field. Since 2020, he has been self-employed in culture. He lives and works in Ljubljana.  He participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His works have been published in various magazines.

Mentalika is Ljubljana’s queen of disguise, an activist and main organizer of Dragoslavija. She began her drag career in March 2019 when, together with Plastika and Noname Mess, she founded the House of Dynasty. Known at the time as Petra HD, Mentalika made her first appearance at the Tiffany Club in a contest for this year’s May Queen, and won. Together with their drag house and under the mentorship of an experienced queen of disguise, Babsi Adler, in July 2019 they create their first show. The group continues to work under the name Drag Hags and performs monthly shows at the Tiffany Club and K4. In November 2019, she performs with her house in Split, in the Kocka club, under the auspices of Cabaret Tiffany. After a year of active research into the art of drag and a string of successes in the field of performance, the whole process is halted due to the corona virus pandemic. Together with a handful of local and Balkan queens of disguise, Mentalika creates the first online drag show in the Balkans – Dragoslavia. In one year, the Dragoslavia team will perform 19 online shows on the Twitch online platform, featuring around 50 different drag queens from the former Yugoslavia and beyond. Mentalika is first and foremost a performer, and then everything else. At her performances, the audience can expect strong emotions, uncomfortable questions and high energy. Her make-up is inspired by uncertainty and non-binarism, which are also the main motives with which she describes her drag.

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