Stories
Video installation and performance (ongoing project)
In my pursuit towards mental health, I embarked on a journey through various landscapes. On this fantasy trip, I engaged my queer allies.
Their performative rituals suggest ways of coping, as well as survival strategies that help us weather anxieties and our troubled minds.
Working on each scene of ‘Stories’ meant forging a stronger bond with different people from our community.
For me it is about building on the queer resilience that starts on a personal level. I am a gay man, cis, white. Yet, I am also queer.
For me it is about building on the queer resilience that starts on a personal level. I am a gay man, cis, white. Yet, I am also queer.
These wonderful people represent little liberations of the queer part of me that is being discovered in a long process of making, interacting and learning:
a friend and a queer ally (José), my partner who helped me overcome my darkest anxieties (Vincent), a former LGBTQIA+ activist who still protects and helps people from our community (Mitja), an active LGBTQIA+ activist who are unstoppable despite their physical disability (Vic), a survivor who went through many lives in different places (Ryszard) and an art student who soon will become a force to reckon with, addressing injustice in the tough world surrounding them (Malcolm).
‘Stories’ were first presented as a performative reading with visuals and sounds in 2022. The project evolved into a video installation the following year.
As I continue my work, new stories will evolve and more people from our community will show their ritualistic powers.
“The artist uses poetic narration to evoke a particularly intense sense of anxiety, while also creating a permeable and liberating atmosphere that delves into the question of mental health.
The viewer observes the protagonists subtly journeying through landscapes that reflect their psychological states. These are enactments of performative rituals as a means of confronting distress and as survival strategies that alleviate inner turmoil and lead to the development of psychological resilience to societal phenomena.
Klančar’s solo exhibition at Račka raises questions of vulnerability and exposure, highlighting the necessity of occupying and creating a shared queer space where care and mutual attentiveness are at the forefront.”
- Maja Hodošček, curator at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Celje
The video installation at Galerija Račka (Center for Contemporary Arts) 2023, Celje
In my performance readings, my alter ego takes the audience on a trip in which they encounter sexual personae from the queer nightlife.
Starting in 2015, I have read various texts, accompanied with visuals and soundscapes. These performances were a starting point of my subsequent film works and have changed through time.
Performance reading of 'Stories' at the Gallery of Contemporary Art (Center for Contemporary Arts) 2022, Celje
Photos: Ana Straže
Photos: Ana Straže
Runtime - video installation: 15 min
Runtime - performance: 45 min
Runtime - performance: 45 min
Credits
Directed, filmed and edited by Iztok Klančar
Soundtrack: Lifecutter
Cast: Mitja Blažič, Vincent Fitz-Jim, Vic Kelly-Victor, Ryszard Ledeman, José Tangelder, Malcolm Wamunza
Costume for Malcolm Wamunza: Andrea Bonderup
Queer kilt for Vic Kelly-Victor: Veronica Victor
Soundtrack: Lifecutter
Cast: Mitja Blažič, Vincent Fitz-Jim, Vic Kelly-Victor, Ryszard Ledeman, José Tangelder, Malcolm Wamunza
Costume for Malcolm Wamunza: Andrea Bonderup
Queer kilt for Vic Kelly-Victor: Veronica Victor
Production years: 2022 - 2023
Supported by Fonds Kwadraat
