Every Angel’s Terrifying
Lala Raščić
audio work 26 min
…Every angel’s terrifying.
so I control myself and choke back the lure
of my dark cry. Ah, who can we turn to,
then? Neither angels nor men,
and the animals already know by instinct
we’re not comfortably at home
in our translated world….
(R. M. Rilke)
Every Angel’s Terrifying is a spoken word sound piece produced for the Conditions of Peace project and it takes its title from a verse by Reiner Maria Rilke. It is known that Rilke’s poetry is difficult to translate because the possibilities of his original sentiment are vast. However, the translated verses I take my departure from are eerily precise in communicating the feeling of discomfort and uncertainty of the times we are living. The script for the audio work Every Angel’s Terrifying superimposes an auto-poetic text with machine analysis of textual contents generated for the Conditions of Peace project that took form as a shared Google drive folder and was utilized as working material by project participants. This folder includes transcripts of extensive interviews with all affiliated and beyond. The interview transcripts are treated as a corpus for algorithmic analysis of world correlations resulting in lists of keywords.
Central questions in the interviews are essential: justice, solidarity, equality, peace – and the crisis of the same. These are the questions we all seek clear answers to. Alas, the questions resonate and we are at a loss of making sense of it all: “... the animals already know by instinct we’re not comfortably at home in our translated world ...”
Further iterations of the work will include a series of fifteen hand-lettered B3 posters bearing citations from the written out in photosensitive ink, activated by exposure to sun or UV light. The temporal-performative characteristics of this procedure bears an analogy to the idea of Conditions of Peace: it is a sentiment in the becoming.
Concept, script, voice: Lala Raščić
Sound engineer: Haris Sahačić
Lala Raščić (b. 1977 Sarajevo) is a media and performance artist using the strategy of enactment to deliver narratives that include verbal video performances, performances, performative installation environments, video projections, objects, light, drawing, and painting.
Recent activities include work on the project Europa Enterprise with Andreja Dugandžić and Jelena Petrović and the production of the video EE-0: Arachne - a joint commission by the Kadist and Lumbardhi Foundations.
Solo exhibitions include GORGO at the Acadian Center for the Arts, Lafayette (2019); The Eumenides, Museo Lapidarium, Novigrad and Waldinger Gallery, Osijek (2018); Evil Earth System, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans (2016); Evil Earth, Culture Center Tobacna, Ljubljana (2015); How to do Things With Words, SKUC, Ljubljana (2014); No Country Other Than Liberty, Mali Salon, Rijeka (2013); Whatever the Object, GfZK, Leipzig (2013); A Load from the Inside – Reviewed, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna (2011), Everything is Connected,
National Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo (2007). Group shows include 54. Zagreb Salon (2019); Testimony Truth or Politics, Galerija-legat Milice Zorić i Rodoljuba Čolakovića of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2018); Witnesses, Bodies in Dialogue and Processes of Reflection, MMC Luka, Pula (2016); Kabinet, Apoteka in Gallery Waldinger, Osijek (2015); Memory Lane, Galerije du Jour, Agnes B, Paris (2014); the 54th
October Salon, Belgrade (2013); D-0 ARK Underground, Konjic (2011); Second World, Steierischer Herbst, Graz (2011); City of Women, Ljubljana (2009, 2008); Normalization, Platform Garanti CAC, Istanbul (2005); New Video, New Europe, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2004); and Balkan Konsulat, <rotor>, Graz (2003).
Amongst others, Raščić had attended artist-in-residence programs at the Museums Quartier, Q21, Vienna; Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; Platform Garanti, Istanbul; KulturKontakt, Vienna; and Cite des Arts, Paris. Raščić is the recipient of the awards Future of Europe, Leipzig (2013); the T-HT and Museum of Contemporary Art award, Zagreb (2007), and the YVVA Zvono (2006). Raščić was shortlisted for the Henkel Art Award (2013) and the Radoslav Putar YVVA Award (2006).
Her work is included in number of private and public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Lauba, Zagreb; and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Raščić is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. She is a member of HDLU, Zagreb and HZSU, and the Sarajevo organization CRVENA. From 2011 to 2018 she was an active member of the New Orleans artist-run Good Children Gallery.
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