Curator
Jernej Čuček Gerbec
B>exhibition opening: Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 7 p.m.
exhibition tour with the artist: Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at 6 p.m.
With a relaxed yet perceptive and incisive artist’s line of thought, the exhibition addresses a key question: “Why do I (as a woman keep falling into the same trap and) keep reproducing the same shit?” It is a question about the perpetuation of a system of inequality, sexism, and the refusal to recognise female identity as equally important. This is a system maintained through the repetition of behavioural patterns, the reproduction of power structures that legitimise them, and the internalisation of ideas designed to sustain them. Sexism and anti-feminism are not only visible, overt acts of hatred; they are also concealed within society under the veil of customs and invisible patterns, often understood as an integral part of social order itself. They emerge everywhere, but most insidiously they become embedded within family relationships. It is therefore hardly surprising that the programming required for a sexist social order often originates precisely there.
The Sunday family lunch (južna): a spotless tablecloth, neatly arranged plates, forks, spoons, knives, napkins, and at the centre a pot of homemade soup. The mother, who has also done all the preparation and cooking, serves those seated at the table. Plate after plate. This is an image frequently reproduced in our films, often with beef soup as a stock mythology of the ordinary and the normative. Figuratively, the breaking of bread serves to align the viewer with the film’s characters. Formally, it is a depiction of everyday life. The family lunch thus represents the traditional Slovenian family and its customs; in reality, however, it is nationalism masked as an emotionally shared intergenerational experience.
The family lunch depicted, for example, in the film Outsider adopts all the familiar formats of a domestic gathering yet functions primarily as the backdrop to a significant conflict between father and son. Pasulj (bean stew), meaningfully replacing beef soup, becomes an intrusive element within the traditional idyll of the Slovenian family. Yet the driving force of the scene, and its place within the film, are derived from the main plot.
Unintentionally and unconsciously, the scene reproduces what remains unaddressed in the film itself through its realist depiction. Viewed uncritically, the Slovenian-Bosnian family meal appears entirely unproblematic; it is merely a repetition of the familiar, something in which many viewers can recognise themselves because it reflects patterns they encounter in everyday life. It is an exchange of masculine energy, while the mother’s intervention is, as expected, minimal. Through the lens of what the exhibition Re-Sister addresses, the scene illuminates what remains unsaid, that which is silenced, and what ultimately lingers solely between the lines. The mother, Marija, is reduced to preparing an excellent bean stew, slicing bread, and uttering a single sentence. Her passive role and silence become tools for maintaining “order” within the household.
As if by design, the next (unrelated) scene continues with the line: “How could something like this possibly have happened?” And indeed, how could it? The mother’s invisible labour—setting the table, cooking, slicing bread, and carrying the accompanying mental load—remains taken for granted. Her contribution to the argument is suppressed and, in the name of decorum, neatly framed as an inconsequential remark. In this respect, Re-Sister addresses precisely these questions. Why do we allow things to go unsaid? Why do we permit the reproduction of patterns and mechanisms that serve a single purpose: maintaining “order” in the household, though this time not merely within the mythologised domestic sphere, but within society itself and, consequently, within a social order that prescribes patriarchy? Through policymaking, social norms, and a persistent attachment to nostalgia and traditionalism, we sustain these rules and patterns of behaviour. Ana Kotar Škarjak had already begun addressing these questions in In Formation (2026), where the text of the performance Dear Sister appears bound and inaccessible to reading. Symbolically internalised. Re-Sister, on the other hand, unties and exposes these patterns so that they do not remain, as in Outsider, implicitly encoded within the current social order. It reveals them so that we may discuss them, reflect upon them, and recognise them, both in popular media, in public life, and around the lunch table at home.
The artist occupies the gallery space in its entirety, wrapping it in red and filling it with phrases she herself has encountered, phrases that serve to programme women for life within a patriarchal society. The space represents internalised thoughts and behavioural patterns imposed upon women by society. It embodies situated knowledge that, through symbolic annihilation, remains beyond the reach of common understanding. The seemingly empty space is an artwork not intended for straightforward reading; rather, it reflects a society that systematically obscures its own structures through intergenerationally learned patterns and traditional values, presenting itself as precariously balanced.
Kotar Škarjak informs her artistic practice through her own experience as both a woman and an immigrant in Berlin, a position that places her within a framework of dual systemic oppression. Like the mother in Outsider, she encounters systematic sexism, and the preparation of beef soup results in a sense of alienation in her foster country. She remains trapped within a space that demands compliance both with the traditionalism of a foreign environment and with patriarchal social structures. She finds herself within a matrix of domination that only intensifies her experience as a woman. The exhibition therefore asks: What happens when a woman speaks out? Does the system begin to fracture once we recognise it? How is a woman meant to live in a world where there is no room for the fullness of her being? — Jernej Čuček Gerbec
Ana Kotar Škarjak (b. 1987, Novo Mesto, Slovenia) is a visual and performance artist based in Berlin whose work examines nurture and motherhood as undervalued forms of labour—simultaneously emotional, physical, and political.
Working across performance, installation, text, and sound, she creates immersive environments that hold the tension between intimate domestic routines and the broader social structures that shape them. Often durational in form, her performances render visible the rhythms of maintenance, emotional regulation, and reproductive labour as they unfold over time. Through a restrained and embodied visual language, she explores how maternal subjectivity is shaped by gendered work, cultural expectations, and inherited narratives. Drawing on feminist thought, lived experience, and the sociocultural legacies of the Balkans, her practice foregrounds the gestures, repetitions, and acts of nurture that sustain everyday life while frequently remaining unseen.
Her artistic research has been supported by the LJUBAW Grant (ETC. Magazine / Ljubljana Art Weekend, 2025) and the Visual Arts Research Grant of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion (2025). She has presented her work at A.I.R. Gallery (New York), Roam Projects e.V. (Berlin), Kunstraum m3 (Berlin), BUNA Forum for Contemporary Art (Varna), Telegraph Gallery (Olomouc), and the Centre for Contemporary Arts (Celje).
She graduated in Contemporary Drawing and Art Education from the University of Ljubljana in 2015 and is currently pursuing an MA in Raumstrategien at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art (Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee). Her research has been supported by the LJUBAW Grant (2025) and the Berlin Senate Visual Arts Research Grant (2025). Selected solo exhibitions and performances include In Formation (R17 Experimental Space, Berlin, 2026), Again and Again (Roam Projects e.V., Berlin, 2025), and Who is Taking Care of the Caregiver? (Telegraph Gallery, Olomouc, 2025). Selected group exhibitions include the 6th Triennial of Young Artists in Celje (2025) and BUNA Forum for Contemporary Art (Varna, 2025).
