Document Missing: On Methodology (text, voice and body), solo exhibition (28.10.-30.11.2022), History Museum, Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia, Skopje, 2022. Enabler: Jana Kocevska. Photo: Sonja Stavrova.

Document Missing is an ongoing research-based project that I began developing in 2014. It explores the forms, narratives, and aesthetics of women’s resistance strategies and political actions in Macedonia during the first half of the 20th century, and their connections to contemporary forms of resistance.

The project draws primarily on transcribed and archived oral testimonies of eyewitnesses and participants in liberation and emancipatory movements in Macedonia, collected and institutionally preserved after World War II.

The idea for this exhibition, Document Missing: On Methodology (text, voice and body), emerged through dialogue with historian Ivana Hadzievska and ethnologist and activist Jana Kocevska, who invited me to join a research team focused on the largely forgotten women’s magazine Makedonka (published in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and in the Macedonian language from 1944 to 1952). The magazine functioned as the organ of the Women’s Antifascist Front of Macedonia, itself part of the broader Women’s Antifascist Front of Yugoslavia, established on December 6, 1942.

My research centred on the first issue of Makedonka, published under extremely difficult conditions on November 7, 1944. This encounter prompted me to reflect on what it means to produce and edit emancipatory content, and which key terms define such a process. From this inquiry, I developed a working methodology based on three essential elements central to my understanding of performance and performativity: text, voice, and body.

The text emerges from the need to narrate in situations where facts are not grounded in official documents but in oral interpretations of events. In this space of uncertainty, the boundary between fact and fiction dissolves, allowing both to coexist as equally meaningful.

The voice arises from the body and positions us in relation to others. It articulates thought and emotion through the language in which it feels most at ease.

The body performs oral imagination through its femininity. It carries within it knowledge of the sacred and the secular, the magical and the healing. The body becomes a vessel for the voices of the past, allowing them to resonate and speak in the present.
 
List of works:
1. Glass case no. 1: (left) “Makedonka”, Organ of the Women’s Antifascist Front of Macedonia, no. 1, November 1944, year 1. (middle) Sketchbook, 2022. (right) Glagolenje/Speaking, 2018. Ink on paper.
 
2. Document Missing: Performance no. 10 (Embroidery), 2022. Cotton thread and graphite on fabric made of cotton and wool, dimensions: 160 x 700 cm.
 
3. Glass case no. 2: (left) Sketchbook, ink and graphite on paper, 2021-2022. (middle) Untitled (someone will remember us / I say / even at some other time), 2014, earthenware ceramic, pigment and graphite. (right) Untitled (Fists), 2014, earthenware ceramic, pigment and graphite. (right) A Form of Answer, 2016, four drawings, graphite on paper. (left) To Work In Order To Eat In Order To Work, 2016, cotton thread on synthetic felt.
 
4. Archetype Open Form, 2022. Cyrillic Macedonian typography: 59 letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. Metal, plastic, pigment, and graphite, dimensions: 494 x 232 cm. Collaborators: Martin Krstevski (metal), Iliana Petrushevska (graphic preparation), Ivan Peshevski (technical preparation), Nebojsha Gelevski-Bane (font development).
 
5. Document Missing: Performance no. 11 (“Makedonka” – emancipation, meaning and desire), 2022. Wall engraving, pigment and graphite, dimensions: 492 x 230 cm.
 
6. Video documentation from the execution of the large textile work Document Missing: Performance no. 10 (Embroidery), 2022. Camera: Yane Calovski. Duration: 08:49 min.
 
7. Document Missing: Performance no. 12 (Costume “Makedonka” – emancipation, meaning and desire), 2022. Woollen felt, cotton thread, plastic, wood, and metal. Dimensions: 140 x 200 cm. Collaborators: Ludus Agender Label (costume), Martin Krstevski (metal construction), Abdula Mustafa (cap).
 
8. Document Missing: Performance no. 6 (Daughter), 2022, HD video, duration: 25:04 min. Costume: Ludus agender label; camera and sound: Dario Sekulovski, Marjan Petkovski; Editing: Lazar Sekulovski. Video documentation of the performance that premiered on June 2 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, as part of the exhibition “Ecstatic Bodies: Archive of Performative Queer Bodies” curated by Slavcho Dimitrov and Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski in the frame of “Skopje Pride Week 2022.”
 
9. Document Missing: “Makedonka” – Emancipation, Meaning and Desire. Concept and author: Hristina Ivanoska. Publishers: Tiiiit! Inc. – Skopje / Center for Research of Nationalism and Culture (CRNC), Skopje 2022. This publication is part of the Festival of Feminist Culture and Action “First Born Girl”, and the research project “Archives of the Invisible: ‘Makedonka’ – Organ of the AFŽ (1944–1952), Historical Experiences and Cultural Memory.” Supported by: JADRO – Association of the Independent Cultural Scene; KSP “Centar-Jadro”; and Press to Exit Project Space, Skopje.