25/10/2026
During the opening of the Carbon Tierra Biennale II: Breath in the Ashes in Ptolemaida Slaven Tolj performed the following piece yesterday night
SLAVEN TOLJ — SRĐ JE NAŠŠŠŠ
24.10.2026, duration 21 minutes
Last night, Slaven Tolj brought memory, the body, language, and civic resistance into the space of performance.
Returning to his long-standing involvement in Srđ je naš, the civic initiative that mobilised citizens against the proposed transformation of the landscape above Dubrovnik, Tolj revisits a struggle that continues to leave its traces — in the city, in collective memory, and in the body.
After suffering two strokes, Slaven had to learn again how to speak and communicate. In this performance, speech itself becomes a powerful part of the work. Words such as “kurac” and “jebem”— raw, vulgar, and confrontational — emerge not as polished statements, but as an uncompromising language through which anger, frustration, defiance, and presence are expressed.
Alongside an empty frame, chewing gum, his tattoo, and the memory of a broken arm, his words become traces of a personal history intertwined with a collective struggle.
What does it mean to speak when speaking has become a struggle? What remains of resistance when the demonstrations are over? And how do we continue to claim responsibility for the places and histories that shape us?
SRĐ JE NAŠŠŠŠ.
A slogan, a memory, a body, a voice — still insisting.
Dubrovnik BodyAndMemory LanguageAndResistance
