Novi Zagreb (Ljudi iza prozora)

"In 'Novi Zagreb (Ljudi iza prozora)' [New Zagreb (People behind the window)] Sanja Iveković depicts the limousine used by President Tito of Yugoslavia during a visit to Zagreb in 1979. The artist intervened in the official newspaper photograph illustrating the visit by enlarging it and colouring the balconies of the building behind the car on which, against the instructions of presidential security, residents are seen standing. With these simple gestures, Iveković points to the repressive nature of the socialist government that dominated her country for 47 years.
Sanja Iveković, who has been working since the 1970s, is part of a generation of artists known as ‘Nova umjetnička praksa’ [New Artistic Practice] who, in post-1968 Yugoslavia, freed themselves from the influence of the State, especially from socialist iconography, opening up to new disciplines ― performance, video, photography ― and looking into themes directly related to society. Her politically engaged oeuvre addresses issues of gender, identity and memory. Iveković’s videos and photomontages are well known for denouncing identity-building mechanisms spread by the media, namely the ideals of beauty promoted by women’s magazines. Her early work contributed decisively to an awareness of sexism within the growing advertising industry. The relationship between gender, power, government repression and political dissent in the context of socialist Yugoslavia is another of her major concerns.
In her most recent works, which are marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Iveković has expanded her interests to include the construction of collective memory and the glossing over of historical events."