The video is about the phantasmatic world of a woman stereotype portrayed as a model (Marina Grzinic)/apparently a transvestite (that switches through language between sexes, being she and then suddenly he), and her friend – a hermaphrodite (Aina Smid). They remember their childhood, the years in school and the first experience with masturbation. The visual story is the confrontation of the model (Grzinic) with her photographs, slides and performances/posing for the camera. Onto these sequences is recorded the song “The Model”. The video work reuses the aesthetics from the German and American avant-garde traditions Fassbinder, Von Praunheim and Warhol (lightening, frames and cutting) with performance in front of the camera that points toward politics of sexuality, gender, female pleasure and pornography. This work is possible to be seen as one of the first if not the first in the field of video art in the world that opens and dramatise the institution of masculinity through drag practices in socialism. It can be seen as a clear political statement in favour of lesbians and sadomasochism. It presents a clear political performative stance toward these issues.
Video made under the name of the group Meje kontrole st. 4// The Borders of Control no.4 (members Marina Grzinic, Aina Smid, Dusan Mandic and Barbara Borcic)
VHS, colour, 11.23 min; produced by SKUC-Forum, Ljubljana, 1982
Original title: Ikone glamourja, odmevi smrti
Actresses/performers:
Marina Grzinic and Aina Smid
Camera,editing: Dusan Mandic
Music: Snakefinger “The Model” Lyrics originally by Kraftwerk
Language: Slovenian; subtitles: English
