Saša Bezjak: Cacophony of Sounds and Red

Friday, 3 April 2026, at 6 p.m.

Performance

Alkatraz Gallery

ACC Metelkova mesto

1000 Ljubljana

V the universal language of arts

Free entrance

Saša Bezjak: Cacophony of Sounds and Red

With her series of performances Cacophony of Sounds and Red, visual artist Saša Bezjak enters the field of performance art, where she creates a space for connection: between artists (herself as a performer and two musicians) and creative expressions (images, gestures, movement, voice and sound). As an artist characterized by an activist artistic stance, which she repeatedly establishes through her drawings, embroideries, paintings, sculptures and spatial installations, the space of a one-off event is an increasingly existential challenge for her artistic action and performance. She asks herself how to portray her body and herself as a woman in the context of an engaged public event. At the same time, this is also her creative experiment in how to stage her visual practice using theatrical means and performative expression. In doing so, she has found refuge in exploring the voice, with musicians providing both support and a common starting point, as they all come from a tradition of alternative music and punk.

Saša Bezjak first articulates her transition from the visual to the performative in words: ‘As an artist, I want to build performance in images or scenes. I draw on my previous practice: the performance International Bezjak Red (Red Dawns, 2022), in which I used explicit visuality. I used fabric dyed with red colour, which was later made into a dress. I covered myself in red paint and printed the image of my body onto a white tablecloth.

Later, in my performances, I moved away from visuality and entered into the recitation of politically engaged texts (Women Have Come Duba (Ženske so prišle Duba), 2024) and into experiments with voice and cacophony of sounds (Musical Lobotomy (Glasbena lobotomija), 2025).

With my new performance Kakofonija zvokov in rdeče (Cacophony of Sounds and Red, premiered at the Alkatraz Gallery in Ljubljana and repeated at the Duck Gallery in Celje and GT22 in Maribor), I want to explore harmony and volume, as well as the equal positions of all participants. Thematically, I focus on exploring manipulation and “pain” in its physical and psychological sense. In pain, I recognized the potential for existential growth and creative development. As an older artist with many years of experience as a woman, mother and precarious worker, I address the affirmation of social norms and manners. I do not violate them, I only communicate that they are no longer necessary because we must be or become free beings. Everything is based on relationships: with oneself, one’s neighbor, the community, and society. I am aware of my naive position and the (in)effectiveness of artistic action, but it is precisely through persistence and creative courage that I oppose the psychological, economic, political and social manipulations in which we are entangled. My 55 years have brought me caution, but also naivety. With artistic sensitivity, I mark my psychological state and potential for new work, taking the time to establish knowledge, artistic maturity and confrontation with the public. Despite the current lack of freedom and the technologies that guide us, we remain free. I want to convey this message especially to alternative-minded young people between the ages of 20 and 30, but my performances are intended for audiences of all ages.

While Saša Bezjak is more subtle in her visual practice (especially her embroidered drawings, which are stripped of unnecessary details and rely on the suggestiveness of lines) and sheltered in her intimate world, she is now, in the performance before us,  direct, with her vulnerability and fragility, but also with her courage, emotional emancipation, and rebellion.

Saša Bezjak, Dušan Dovč

Saša Bezjak, academic painter, master of sculpture, and professor of fine arts, has been involved in performance art since 2002, when she began working as an artist and independent cultural worker, developing her artistic expression in the context of feminist art.

Rajko Muršič, an anthropologist and ethnologist, has participated in various experimental rock bands and improvisational ensembles (Mi, Gromska strela, Nebodigatreba, Avantkurent), and has also performed as a soloist. In the last two decades, he has once again surrendered to the inspiration of the moment and analog-electric experimentation with the sounds of electric guitars.

Urban Saletinger is a drummer and percussionist who graduated from the lower music school in Gornja Radgona. He is an active member of the Radgona alternative music scene and a member of several alternative and metal music groups. 

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Info

Organisation: 27th International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawn (Arts and Culture Association KUD Mreža)

Concept and execution: Saša Bezjak

Curator: Dušan Dovč

Music: Rajko Muršič (guitar), Urban Saletinger (drums)

Graphic Design: Janu Krohm

Media Contacts: Saša Nemec, rdece.zore@gmail.com

Financial Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the City Municipality of Ljubljana – Department of Culture

Donations