Oaza Books

“365 routines” is a yearlong choreography composed of a daily exchange of short dance videos alternately shared between visual artist Nina Kurtela and choreographer Hana Erdman. The work culminates in a 48-minute video whereby the 365 videos are edited together to form one long dance phrase. It is an ongoing communication between different environments, locations, languages, identities, spaces, and times. During the daily routines the artists engage in an imaginary space of belonging that is no longer physical or territorial. Dancing becomes home for the two.

"The artist's experience of being inside art institutions, starting from the effort made to be accepted in order to develop one's art practice, then the experience of going through them, and while in them, the many ways of having to learn how to be inside. This will in several ways inform the development of an artist's practice, for the good or for the bad. Making this publication has been an attempt at recognizing and dealing with, rather than avoiding, the tensions that exist in the relationship between artists and art institutions at a time when most art institutions themselves are under the pressure of austerity-politics."

The things in this book—mostly cardboard, found things, written things—are not made for galleries and museums. They were produced for small-scale events held on streets, squares or at social centres, and typically they have a very short life expectancy.

Ben Cain's book focuses on art as an activity that might be unannounced, might be clandestine, might be private, and nevertheless takes place in shared spaces—and it wants to generate and participate in public debate.

The artist book "On Witches (Is she just too old for this?)" by Sanja Iveković is based on the artist's 2013 art project "Isn't She Too Old for That? (On Witches)", drawing on Silvia Federici’s feminist classic "Caliban and the Witch" (2004). Federici explores witch hunts of the early modern period, connecting them to the rise of capitalism and colonialism, while pointing out how this topic is often overlooked in traditional Marxist discussions of primitive accumulation.

Through a series of collages, Iveković bridges past and present, posing the question - who are the “witches” of today. She places particular emphasis on the link between society's imagination of witches and ideas associated with old age, investigating how women who don’t fit conventional standards of youth and beauty are perceived. The collages in this book challenge us to rethink how society thinks of women and their power at different life stages.

In addition to the visual work, the book includes tributes to some of Croatia’s most prominent feminists, such as Slavenka Drakulić, Rada Iveković, Vesna Kesić, Jelena Lovrić and Dubravka Ugrešić.