Secondary Archive

Secondary Archive Platform for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe

Meet , a Belarusian artist whose practice explores the intersections of identity, power, and cultural narratives through...
13/03/2026

Meet , a Belarusian artist whose practice explores the intersections of identity, power, and cultural narratives through installation, photography, and performance. Educated at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts (2003–2008), she has been actively exhibiting her work since 2010.

Gladko’s artistic strategy often involves constructing ambivalent and symbolic images that question large systems shaping our reality — from the structures of the art world and the role of museums to religion, culture, memory, and gender politics. Her works reflect on crises of identity and the tensions between individual experience and collective history.

Through installations, performative gestures, and self-portrait series, she examines how personal narratives intersect with broader political and social frameworks, revealing the fragile boundaries between public and private, myth and reality.

Read Zhanna Gladko’s full statement on secondaryarchive.org in the Artists section.

Meet — a Ukrainian q***r artist, filmmaker, actress, and performer whose work moves between experimental cinema, perfor...
06/03/2026

Meet — a Ukrainian q***r artist, filmmaker, actress, and performer whose work moves between experimental cinema, performance, and video art. Born in Vinnytsia and currently working between Kyiv, Odesa, and Warsaw, she explores the darker layers of the human psyche through bold, ritual-like visual narratives.

Her artistic practice investigates themes such as fear, sexuality, death, and social taboos, examining how these subjects function within the public imagination and collective consciousness. Through performative video works that blend fiction, documentary elements, and experimental aesthetics, AntiGonna constructs images that resemble symbolic rituals — attempts to confront and tame the anxieties of existence.

Often autobiographical yet expressed through metaphor, her work addresses personal trauma, gender identity, and the experiences of marginalized communities, exploring how art can become a therapeutic space and a tool for social openness toward difference.

By bringing hidden fears and repressed desires into visibility, AntiGonna challenges societal prohibitions and invites audiences to confront what is usually kept in silence.

Read AntiGonna’s full statement on secondaryarchive.org in the Artists section.

Four years have passed since February 24, 2022 — the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a date that profoun...
24/02/2026

Four years have passed since February 24, 2022 — the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a date that profoundly reshaped the lives, practices, and realities of Ukrainian women artists.
In this conversation with curators Kateryna Iakovlenko, Oksana Briukhovetska, and Alya Segal, the project “Women Artists in War” reflects on how the artistic language of Ukrainian women artists has evolved since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian section of Secondary Archive was launched just hours before the invasion began. The very next day, war transformed not only everyday life, but also the role of art — as testimony, archive, and a form of resistance shaped by loss, displacement, and survival.

These voices remain crucial: not only as artistic expressions, but as living documents created under the conditions of war, uncertainty, and ongoing violence.

As we mark the fourth year since that day, we will soon return to these artists, as well as to new testimonies that continue to emerge.

We also take this moment to remember Marharyta Polovinko, one of the artists featured on the Secondary Archive platform, who lost her life on the front on April 5, 2025.

Read the full conversation on secondaryarchive.org in the Essays section.

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Минуло чотири роки від 24 лютого 2022 року — дня повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну, який докорінно змінив життя, практики та реальність українських художниць.
У розмові з кураторками Катериною Яковленко, Оксаною Брюховецькою та Алею Сегал проєкт «Women Artists in War» осмислює, як художня мова українських мисткинь змінилася від початку повномасштабної війни.

Українська частина Secondary Archive була запущена буквально за кілька годин до початку вторгнення. Уже наступного дня війна змінила не лише повсякденність, але й роль мистецтва — як свідчення, архіву та форми спротиву, сформованої досвідом втрати, переміщення та виживання.

Ці голоси залишаються надзвичайно важливими: не лише як мистецькі висловлювання, але й як живі свідчення, створені в умовах війни, невизначеності та триваючого насильства.

Відзначаючи четвертий рік від тієї дати, ми незабаром повернемося до цих художниць, а також до нових свідч

Women’s stories as history.Women’s testimonies as research.Secondary Archive gathers women’s personal narratives and art...
10/02/2026

Women’s stories as history.
Women’s testimonies as research.

Secondary Archive gathers women’s personal narratives and artistic practices from Central and Eastern Europe, offering a research platform for exploring the region’s history and art history.

Welcome to Secondary Archive!

Explore the journey of women artists in Montenegro through “Through Art Toward Freedom,” an insightful essay by Ana Ivan...
09/02/2026

Explore the journey of women artists in Montenegro through “Through Art Toward Freedom,” an insightful essay by Ana Ivanović that maps how female creatives carved space for themselves within a deeply patriarchal artistic landscape. In a culture where women’s presence was long pushed to the margins and official narratives overlooked their contributions, this text highlights both historic invisibility and fearless resistance.

The essay traces the complicated intertwining of institutional discrimination, social norms, and cultural expectations that shaped women’s creative paths — from post-World War II developments and early education in art to new forms of expression emerging amid patriarchy and neoliberal pressures.

But this is not just a history of exclusion — it’s also a story of resilience. Women artists in Montenegro challenged norms, found solidarity, and pushed toward artistic freedom, helping redefine what belonging and visibility could look like in their society.

📌 A powerful reflection on how art intersects with gender, culture, and resistance in the Balkans — and on the enduring quest for creative autonomy.

Read Ana Ivanović’s full essay on secondaryarchive.org in the Essays section to dive deeper into these stories of creativity and freedom.

.omk works through performance, voice, video and participatory actions, treating art as a space of encounter rather than...
09/02/2026

.omk works through performance, voice, video and participatory actions, treating art as a space of encounter rather than representation. Her practice unfolds in live situations, where bodies, spoken words and collective presence become tools for reflection and exchange.

She often builds her works as open processes — rehearsed, repeated, negotiated with others — drawing from theatrical methods while resisting fixed narratives or clear resolutions. Collaboration, listening and shared vulnerability are central to how her pieces take shape.

Rather than delivering statements, Azra creates temporary frameworks for dialogue, allowing personal and collective memories to surface through action. Her work remains attentive to how power, language and social structures inhabit everyday gestures — and how they can be momentarily re-imagined through being together.

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omk radi kroz performans, glas, video i participativne akcije, tretirajući umjetnost kao prostor susreta, a ne samo reprezentacije. Njena praksa se odvija u živim situacijama u kojima tijela, izgovorene riječi i zajedničko prisustvo postaju alati za refleksiju i razmjenu.

Često gradi svoja djela kao otvorene procese — kroz probe, ponavljanja i dogovore sa drugima — koristeći metode koje podsjećaju na pozorište, ali bez fiksnih narativa ili konačnih rješenja. Saradnja, slušanje i zajednička ranjivost su u centru načina na koji se njene forme razvijaju.

Umjesto davanja direktnih poruka, Azra stvara privremene okvire za dijalog, omogućavajući da lične i kolektivne uspomene izbace svoje mjesto kroz akciju. Njen rad ostaje usmjeren na to kako moć, jezik i društvene strukture žive u svakodnevnim gestama — i kako se mogu nakratko preispitati kroz zajedničko djelovanje.

Born in 1991 in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, .selma is a multidisciplinary artist working between Bihać, Amsterdam and...
27/11/2025

Born in 1991 in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, .selma is a multidisciplinary artist working between Bihać, Amsterdam and New York. Rooted in her Romani background, her work confronts the realities of discrimination, labour, gender and survival with striking clarity and emotional force.

She uses painting, performance, video and installation to transform personal and collective histories — from metal-scrapping traditions in her family to the experience of growing up in post-war Bosnia — into powerful visual statements.

Selman’s practice challenges stereotypes, exposes systemic injustices and insists on visibility, dignity and agency. She is also the founder of Get The Heck To School, a project supporting the education of Roma girls.

For Selman, art becomes a way of reclaiming narrative, turning what has been dismissed or marginalized into strength, presence and resistance.

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Rođena 1991. godine u Bihaću, Bosna i Hercegovina, .selma je multidisciplinarna umjetnica koja djeluje između Bihaća, Amsterdama i New Yorka. Njeno romsko porijeklo snažno oblikuje njen rad, koji se bavi diskriminacijom, radom, rodom i preživljavanjem, jasno i emotivno progovarajući o tim iskustvima.

Koristi slikarstvo, performans, video i instalaciju kako bi lične i kolektivne priče — od porodične tradicije sakupljanja metala do odrastanja u postratnoj Bosni — pretvorila u moćne vizuelne izjave.

Njena praksa ruši stereotipe, razotkriva sistemske nepravde i insistira na vidljivosti, dostojanstvu i agenciji. Selma je i osnivačica projekta Get The Heck To School, koji podržava obrazovanje romskih djevojčica.

Za Selman, umjetnost je način da se povrati narativ — da se ono što je marginalizirano ili potcijenjeno pretvori u snagu, prisutnost i otpor.

Explore the post-WWII history of Kosovar art — a story shaped by social change, political shifts, and evolving artistic ...
24/11/2025

Explore the post-WWII history of Kosovar art — a story shaped by social change, political shifts, and evolving artistic identities. It’s also a story of exclusion: even though women gained access to art education, cultural and institutional barriers often kept them from fully developing independent artistic careers.

Through figures like Alije Vokshi — the first female student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Pristina, later studying in Belgrade and Paris — the text reveals how recognition and talent didn’t always translate into visibility within official institutions.

The project highlighted in the article exposes the gaps in modernist art narratives: many women artists remain absent from archives and exhibitions, leaving history incomplete.

It invites us to reflect on how social and institutional structures shape what is considered “important” in art history — and how many talented women remain outside the official narrative.

Read 's essay to dive deeper into these overlooked stories and the voices that deserve to be heard — available on secondaryarchive.org in the Essays section.

Born in 1975 in Belgrade, Neda Kovinić lives and works between Belgrade and Berlin. Her performances, films, and install...
18/11/2025

Born in 1975 in Belgrade, Neda Kovinić lives and works between Belgrade and Berlin. Her performances, films, and installations emerge from creative processes situated within temporary, collaborative artist communities — where fairness, empathy and closeness are key.
Secondary Archive

She works with participatory performances, drawings, video, installations and group-based rehearsal situations in diverse settings (forest, modernist architecture, new high-rise urban landscapes). Her work responds to the climate crisis, geopolitical disorientation, media distrust and ongoing conflict, and proposes procedures of collective research, care, mutuality and openness rather than fixed outcomes.
Secondary Archive

For Neda Kovinić, art is a field of transformative potential: she treats the artist as a researcher who doesn’t necessarily seek closure, but asks questions, creates environments and cultivates relationships — she calls it an “art of loving” characterized by slow tempo, multiplicity of perspectives and the embracing of diversity, irrationality, quirkiness and wit.

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Rođena 1975. godine u Beogradu, Neda Kovinić živi i radi između Beograda i Berlina. Njene performanse, filmovi i instalacije nastaju kroz kreativne procese unutar privremenih, kolaborativnih umetničkih zajednica — gde su pravednost, empatija i bliskost ključne vrednosti.

Radi sa participativnim performansima, crtežima, videom, instalacijama i grupnim probama u različitim okruženjima (šume, modernistička arhitektura, novi visoki urbani pejzaži). Njeni radovi odgovaraju na klimatsku krizu, geopolitičku dezorijentaciju, nepoverenje u medije i stalne konflikte, nudeći umesto toga procese kolektivnog istraživanja, brige, uzajamnosti i otvorenosti, a ne unapred definisane ishode.

Za Kovinić, umetnost je prostor transformativnog potencijala: ona umetnika vidi kao istraživača koji ne traži nužno konačne odgovore, već postavlja pitanja, stvara okruženja i neguje odnose — naziva to „umetnošću voleti”, obeleženom sporim ritmom, mnoštvom perspektiva i prihvatanjem različitosti, iracionalnosti, neobičnosti i duhovitosti.

HAVEIT is a feminist art collective founded in Pristina in 2011 by Hana Qena, Vesa Qena, Alketë Sylaj and Lola Sylaj—who...
17/11/2025

HAVEIT is a feminist art collective founded in Pristina in 2011 by Hana Qena, Vesa Qena, Alketë Sylaj and Lola Sylaj—who turned a shared experience of gender-bias within art education into a public, dynamic voice.

They work with performance, public interventions, video installation and protest art to address issues of gender equality, minority rights, and everyday mechanisms of power.

Rooted in Kosovo’s socio-political realities, their practice embraces raw urgency:

"For us, art has a great importance, it is how we convey the reality we live in. We have chosen to perform within the public sphere because the public gaze is less affected and their response more honest, it is within these spaces that they cannot avoid the confrontation with our presence".

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HAVEIT është një kolektiv feminist artistik i themeluar në Prishtinë në vitin 2011 nga Hana Qena, Vesa Qena, Alketë Sylaj dhe Lola Sylaj — të cilat e shndërruan përvojën e tyre të përbashkët me paragjykimin gjinor në arsimin artistik në një zë publik dhe dinamik.

Ato punojnë me performancë, ndërhyrje në hapësirën publike, instalacione video dhe art proteste, duke trajtuar çështje të barazisë gjinore, të drejtave të pakicave dhe mekanizmave të pushtetit në përditshmëri.

E rrënjosur në realitetet socio-politike të Kosovës, praktika e tyre mbart një urgjencë të drejtpërdrejtë:

“Arti për neve ka rëndësi shumë të madhe, në realitetin tonë që e jetojmë e shfaqim përmes artit. Kemi zgjedhë hapësirën publike për shkak që aty publiku është më i sinqertë dhe e ka të pashmangshëm takimin me prezencën tonë.”

Już w tę środę spotykamy się, by mówić o ciele – nie jako obiekcie, lecz jako przestrzeni doświadczenia, pamięci i oporu...
03/11/2025

Już w tę środę spotykamy się, by mówić o ciele – nie jako obiekcie, lecz jako przestrzeni doświadczenia, pamięci i oporu.

„Ciało jako architektura traumy” – rozmowa z Magdą Buczek, Moniką Mamzetą i Martą Romankiv

📅 5 listopada (środa), godz. 18:00
📍 Galeria Turnus
ul. Wolska 46/48, lokal 4, Warszawa
🌐 https://turnus.fun/

O odzyskiwaniu kobiecego ciała z pułapek male gaze’u i o sztuce, która nie boi się dotykać ran.

Dofinansowano ze środków Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego

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