Naked Freedom conceptualizes the possibility of social change under the conditions of financial capitalism and its financialization processes that permeate art, the social, political, and critical discourse. The collective process of making the video “Naked Freedom” is about the enactment of social, political, and performative practices. It is a collective performance for the screen that resonates with performers off screen lives. The work connects Ljubljana, Belgrade, Durham/USA, and presents a conceptual political space of engagement that allows for rethinking what a local community is, who can be part of contemporary communities, who is to be left out, what the price to be paid is.
In Ljubljana, 7 young activists, musicians, poets, and youth workers, members of the Youth Center Medvode, a village near Ljubljana, discuss capitalism, colonialism, education, and the power of art as a possibility for politics. They are also rethinking the possibility for a radicalization of a proper life. The work is not only about recognizing the local youth power, but also about initiating, through the making of the video work, social relations that will make visible agencies who ask for new possibilities.
In Belgrade, Siniša Ilić, artist and performer, deconstructs violence (from heteronormative to nationalistic) and is a connector between different spaces within the realm of culture, art, and activism.
The last part of the video re-questions the non-EU citizens in Europe and the status of Africa in Europe and Africans trying to live and work in the present moment of the European Union. In this part, a precise historical analysis is given of the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion and the prevention of work and life in the EU. It presents an exchange between Marina Gržinić and Kwame Nimako. They met at the Workshop on Education, Development, Freedom, at Duke University, Durham, USA, organized by the Center for Global Studies (25 to 27 February 2010), notably by Walter Mignolo. Kwame Nimako is a theoretician from Ghana who lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is in charge of NiNsee, Amsterdam (The National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy).
The last part of the video provides a wider context to understand the changed conditions of life and work for non-EU residents, in particular the Africans. It shows that there exists a history of these relations and that the new geopolitical reality of Europe, which includes old West Europeans and new former Eastern European states, is based on historical hegemonic mechanisms of division that are today forgotten, but still imperial and murderous in their policies.
Slovenian title: Čista svoboda
Screenplay and directed by Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid
Text in the video by Marina Gržinić (based on Beller, Kopač, Lopez Petit, Deleuze, Nimako)
Camera by Goran Hodžić, Zvonka T Simčič, Daniel Esteban Astorga Poblete
Sound by Ugo Ugowsky
Editing by Zvonka T Simčič
Sound effects by Gržinić and Šmid
Dialogues: Slovenian and English;
English subtitles
CAST: Actress: Nika Rozman Performers, members of Mladinski center (Youth Center) Medvode: Sara Badovinac Emina Djukić Dejan Koban Kobrowsky Blanka Slana Katja Škorič Ugo Ugowsky
Drawings and animations: Siniša Ilić
Music: band »Anamalija« Sara Badovinac, Katja Škorič Jam Session with Sara Badovinac, Katja Škorič, Kobrowsky, Blanka Slana and Ugo Ugowsky Special thanks: Katja Škorič, Franc Cegnar, MC Medvode and Walter Mignolo
Producer: Zvonka Simčič
Production: Zavod CCC, Ljubljana
Coproduction: Mladinski center Medvode
Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2010
