Marija Markovic

A three-channel video installation, "Dokolica" addresses the relation between work and "non-work" time in the current, restructured Serbian socioeconomic system. It explores a non-translatable word from the Serbian language - a word that could loosely mean "free leisure time" in English, but loses its historical context once translated. I do not translate the term dokolica because I want the viewer to examine it through the sociohistorical lens of the former socialist society that complied with the Marxist proposal of eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work and eight hours of recreation. The piece is composed of fifteen distinct vignettes; each is a recording of one of my friends filming themselves while taking a shower. The audio element of the work combines the sound of shower and the voices of people in the video defining and discussing the word dokolica. The video conveys a distinct sense of loss and mourning as the shower becomes the only sanctuary from contemporary society's focus on performance and achievement. Yet the shower offers little respite or development, as the activity itself is only a preparation for more labor. The video tries to capture capitalism's most diabolic feature: the ability to transform our very desires in one simple gesture.