artist: Andreja Džakušič
title: Developing Compassion. Scrubbing
year: 2008
media: performance in the ZDSLU Gallery in Ljubljana
technique: video stills
The work Scrubbing is a part of a two-year project by Andreja Dzakusič, entitled Developing Compassion (2006-2008). The project represents the artist’s way of noting the pain that she faced with the illness, dying and final passing away of her father. In the first of the three performances she symbolically let go of her emotional states, which she had stitched as pain, sadness and fear on white pillows. In the second performance she wiped the floor with disinfectant to relive the sterility of the painfully impersonal ambience of hospitals. In the third performance she sang a mourning song which she wrote on the ground using seeds.