By working together with others, artist Maja Bekan creates space for encounter. She stages settings and situations—inside and outside the art context—in which people can get to know each other and form a temporary collective. Together they examine personal histories, individual truths and social relations. Along the way they find common ground and connections are created, across social divides and divergent life paths.
Bekan often works with women—including her mother, students, retirees, nuns, activists, artists, and others who are trying to find their place in sometimes difficult circumstances. An interest in self-organization and self-empowerment runs like a red thread through all her projects. Her approach is always humorous and light-hearted. Dancing is her metaphor for a community in which you can choose your own rhythm and position. But behind it lies a sincere trust in the potential for new knowledge and social change that can be set in motion through encounter.
Performance is a core part of Bekan’s practice. She uses this art form as a means to spend time together and to engage together—to practice working together without a predetermined goal. She invites her project participants to learn from and with each other through joint activities and exercises. Ultimately, they in turn involve the audience by distilling and (re)enacting scenarios from their encounters and conversations.
Bekan has started a new project at TENT Throw Like a Girl, for which she has set up the front room as a meeting space and stage. Now on display in the exhibition space is a retrospective with the films and theatrical settings that have emerged from previous projects.