Snežana Golubović is performance artist from Frankfurt/Main. She Serbian national (former Yugoslavia) and has lived in Germany since 1992. In July, she was a guest at the Le Brothers in Hue. Twins Thanh and Hai Le are worldwide known as artists. For 8 years, they have been running an artist's residence in a neighborhood just outside the city center of Hue, where old villas and pagodas and a lotus pond beautify the vicinity. Artists who successfully apply can stay for a month or longer. Some artists bring a grant from their home country and pay their fee for the residence. Others find no promotion are also welcome. Hue used to be the great imperial city of Vietnam, now a provincial town with many fine spots, a cuisine praised throughout the country, the Perfume River whose name reveals something about the air and surroundings of Hue. Anyone who comes to the Le Brothers, is well looked after, associated with artists and the art school, where she/he can also give a lecture or workshop – much sought after is photography, video, performance art.
Interview with Snežana Golubović
Snežana Golubović: Since “fields of vision”, a Performance Art Festival in Reutlingen and Tübingen in 2017, where I met the Le Brothers, we developed a lively conversation. We discovered a number of things in common, such as the role of politics, our the communist background, war and our curiosity to know what it was like in former Yugoslavia or in Vietnam, or what drove me to leave my country and what the two brothers would never do.
In addition there was great enthusiasm and love for nature. We have talked about this many times and finally the Le Brothers eventually invited me to Vietnam. That hit a nerve with me. Ever since childhood, since I had read Marguerite Duras “The Lover”, I wanted to travel to Saigon and Vietnam; but it had never happened. Suddenly everything came together.
Snežana Golubović: This is like a dream. Even after a month, I still think: “Is this all true?” From the first day I was surprised by the beauty here, the scents,smells, tastes. I have almost taken an overdose of beauty here. Then the hospitality that touches me a lot.
Snežana Golubović: It is our Friendship. But art has brought us together. We had an idea for a bigger artistic project - NATURA - how we could combine friendship, art and love; and this what we did.
It was not always easy. At work there were situations where the weather did not go along or our views as artists differed; there were conflicts; but ultimately, the side of friendship – LOVE - always won. We have become a family. Thanh and Hai are my brothers. We sometimes have different views on the arts which we can discuss and solve pretty quickly, well and productively, like in a family. Every happy family knows that.
I have learned a lot and I hope the two also. And not only got to know each other but I learnt what is possible in one culture and what is not possible in the other. We have different ways of doing art. For me it was a great enrichment, personally as well as artistically.
Snežana Golubović: It was clear that we would not be able to finish the project in such a short time. We worked intensively for 27 days, made many videos – between 70 to 80 hours of video material. Because of the rain we were sometimes forced to work indoors.
So far, there is only one trailer, which I could use during my artist talk and which I am taking back to Germany. But for the project, selection and editing of the material is only beginning now. We need to think about how we will build the whole installation, make the selection of the photo edition, and do the book. A lot of work is ahead of us.
Snežana Golubović: For us now only love matters, love for one another, love for nature, for work, for art. What has evolved from the start now has a completely different quality. Our theme is “Natura”, which is to be understood as nature around us and nature inside us. The project Natura is now our family.
Snežana Golubović: I take a lot with me. Le Brothers and I will be working on this project for a long time. I hope to come back to Hue soon. Already in September we will meet again - in Germany. Then Le Brothers come to Hamburg to participate in the show An Atypical Brain Damage.
Pionier
Photo: Hoan Le Quoc
In Hanoi the photo "The last Pioneer" was taken. For 15 years, Snežana Golubović has carried the uniform she wore as a youthful pioneer in Yugoslavia in her suitcase on all her travels. Whereever space and history cross her ways, her biography, her own interests and the self-willed role of the last pioneer, she puts on her uniform again. She took photos in Belgrade in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia and at Tito’s tomb (House of Flowers). She wore the uniform in New York, at the corner of Nikola Tesla, at Imagine in Strawberry Fields, in remote Povernir (Patagonia), where Yugoslav pioneers erected a monument in 1983. The photo in Hanoi was taken spontaneously when Snežana Golubović discovered this "oversized" Lenin.
