The backbone of the performance was the everyday act of kneading bread, this time transformed into a strong symbolic message about true heroism and the impossibility of real equality. Dressed in Hero's vest (a work by Nikola Dimitrović), an object made of barbed wire, Bekteši kneaded bread in a wooden trough while the vest left numerous scars on his body. By carrying out an action traditionally associated with women, Bekteši has already begun to problematize gender roles in all our societies. But by adding to this action the element of physical pain and anguish resulting from the use of the Hero's vest, the artist opened the performance to many questions, such as those about true heroism, the meaning of home, the neglected memories of everyday life far from great battles and inhabited by silent heroines, and finally - the invisible work of women and their invisible wounds.
Nela Tonković
Curator, Contemporary Gallery Subotica
Perfomance,
Curator: Nela Tonković
Hero's vest: Nikola Dimitrović
Perfomance documentation: Luka Milanović
Contemporary Gallery Subotica
Subotica, Serbia
2023.