ELENA
 -         
STROK











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BABY UNIVERSE



2021
BABY UNIVERSE
mixed media, text, audio, performance
2021


Perceivance of life resembles wandering through a silent winter forest pervaded with a soft, barely perceptible fog. In the forest, we run into figures speaking of the adventures of their previous springs, summers and autumns, all of them having happened in the same place. Each of them tells their own story, yet the forest and events are, objectively speaking, the same. As Joseph Campbell states, all great stories are, in fact, variations of a single story narrated by different characters, at a different time in a different way. The truth is essentially unambiguous and immutable.




In one of his interviews, Campbell mentions that due to the nature of cultural and temporal settings we live in, a man no longer manages to create widely accepted mythological structures and archetypes for the development of an individual and concludes that the only solution is to create a mythological space on our own. The concept of an idol is necessary in the comparison, which helps us to build our identity. Heroes and idols are an embodiment of ideals admired by a particular culture and the need for them has never faded away, but has nowadays switched to bright screens, either in the form of (fictive) film characters and games or in the form of celebrities.




Science has also taken the role of a mythological space to a great extent, which automatically changes the way a man perceives themself. The same concept is accepted by an astrophysicist Joseph Silk, referring to the chapter Cosmologists and their Myths from his book Cosmic enigmas: ‘’In many respects, the Big Bang is to modern cosmology what mythology was to the ancients.’’




A performative epic fairytale Baby Universe is based on the foundations of ancient ideals, embodied through a simple story in figures of planets faced with the threat of their own mortality. The generally almighty gods / planets found themselves in a situation that they no longer have absolute control, regardless of their martial, thoughtful and other skills. The instinct in each of them arouses the weaknesses they normally effortlessly control. The solution is brought by Pluto, the deity to whom death is not an unknown term, and in whose words a tranquil thought which encloses the analysis. The final outcome remains unknown.




The work symbolically foreshadows the equilibration of opposites, reconciliation of archetypes, appreciation and calibration necessary  to all of us at a certain point. Returning to ‘’their homes’’, all of the planets will draw from Pluto’s words what they wish and are able to. With a dash of humour, Baby Universe becomes a memento mori, with an emphasis on a positive, not so burdened perception of mortality.




‘’Nagual Julian used to tell me (…) about great conquerors, military leaders from ancient Rome. Upon their return to Rome, the citizens greeted them with great triumphal celebrations held in their honour. Showing the treasure they took and people they enslaved, the celebrants were driven around standing on their chariots. Next to them, a slave was riding a horse, with a single task of whispering to them that glory and fame were transient.’’


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Baby Universe is a work that combines visual, musical and performative elements into one hybrid whole. The theme of the work touches on the understanding of archetypes through various systems, either mythological or psychological, and the main assumption from which the action starts is based on a scientific theory in the field of astrophysics. The possible destruction of the Universe is questioned, as a consequence of the disturbance of the current energy order due to the tendency of the Sun and the Moon (opposite archetypes) to equalize and merge into one. Upon learning of the news one night, seven planets Solar System planets lead a discussion about the problem posed, revealing their fears, hopes, and general views on their own lives and deaths. Ultimately, there is an unexpected resolution, although the question of the outcome remains unanswered.

In technical terms, the work is a gesamtkunstwerk thought of, made and executed by one person, myself.


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photos by Matija Smuk for Gallery SC and Filip Romac
video by Darko Škrobonja for Prostor





















ALIENS SURF TOO:
ASTRAEA

ALIENS SURF TOO: ASTRAEA
audio-visual ambient installation, performance, 2022

‘Alien’ belongs to a place or concept that is foreign and unknown to the person that is addressing him/her/it. The un- known is often scary; foreign is not often understood.

Furthermore, an alien is an ex- traterrestrial, a being so far away from our understanding that we can barely imagine its existence.

Surfing,mostliterally,isanactof riding a sea, ocean or river wave; balancing the fluctuating energy of a mass of moving water that is terrifying and, above all, exciting. In an extended sense, riding any

sort of wave is surfing and this act is available to everyone with the wish of battling the all-power- ful waves.

Aliens Surf Too is a collection of narratives, intended to always come into existence through dif- ferent episodes. Each episode presents one character that, among all else, tells the story of their home, their kind and their role in this world. Although theyarecreaturesfromdifferent places, they are all connected through Earth being one of their destinations, a place where they decide to stop for a moment to tell their story.

The character of Astraea is presented in this video, but on some occasions it is even possible to meet her in person, with the right timing...
 
















A HUNDRED SUNS



2021

A HUNDRED SUNS
silkscreen on paper, text, happening
2021


A Hundred Suns is a short story about Mr. Subject, a character travelling the Universe with the goal of locating 100 Suns that carry 100 enigmas, his mission being to bring them back home and give each of the enigmas to 100  other subjects, who will then become new Suns to carry the given enigmas, and whose unveiling will become a mission for the future generations. The story is written in Croatian and Serbian, with the thought of celebrating 100 years since the birth of Zenit, the first avantguarde magazine of the ex-Yugoslavian area.




The story is shared to the audience via a poster printed in silkscreen and pasted in the streets of Zagreb. Along with the story, the poster carries the exat date, time and place of an event that was to take place, in connection with the story of A Hundred Suns. On the given day, I dressed up in a costume and stood on a square in the center of the city with a box in my hands. The box contained 100 printed copies of the story and 100 cookies with the image of the sun on them. They were then dealt to the bypassers that chose to accept it and the happening was completed once all 100 stories and cookies were gone.


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photos by Borut Planinc and Paola Vukelić




SEARCHING FOR FLOWERMAN
drawings, mixed media, installation
2019-

I have a dear friend and his name is Flowerman. I don’t remember exactly when or where I met him, he has somehow always been around. Many people know about the Flowerman, yet again, nobody knows where exactly from. Some people, half jokingly, claim that he is actually a time traveller and that by this time, after all the places and eras he has visited, even he does not clearly remember his origins. But I know that he knows. He is not the sort of person to forget the roots.




Some time has passed now since I saw him and the stories circulating around are that his search has become more intense than ever before. I think we can all feel it true. If nothing, it is in the urgency with which he leaves his workplace, and each time I find it I feel an aura more potent. He is getting closer and closer to his goal, to the Flower.




Usually, he was the one who would always come to me when needed, but this time I carry a message of utmost importance for him. However, he is always just a bit quicker than me. Every time that I manage to find some trace of him, it always comes down to his most recent workplace, but to find him in person seems impossible. Sometimes I even feel that he is simply joking with all of us, but nevertheless, my search must go on. I am certain that the information I carry must be delivered to him as soon as possible.




***







Searching for Flowerman is a work in continuation consisting of mixed media objects, some of which are found, some made. The axis of the work lies in my search of an idea that is embodied in the character of the Flowerman. He is as real as any other human idea.



THE HEALING WATER BOOK



2019
THE HEALING WATER BOOK
carved acryllic glass, text, performance
2019-

Following the ancient rituals of bathing created for many occasions, from baptisms to weddings, this performance also wishes to cooperate with water in order to cleanse oneself, but also to help water in its natural process of cleansing itself.




The Healing Water Book in its physical form is a small book of poems carved in acrylic glass and written in a mix of Croatian/Czech/Greek/Spanish/English. Language is, like water, a fluid matter. Ideally, even more languages are to be mixed together in the song book.




Overall, these poems give thanks to the healing properties of water and kindly ask for the water to help in the healing process. They are meant to be sung in the flowing source of water, after which the performers bathe themselves in it.


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co-performers Sara Grubić and Dorotea Gašpar
video and audio assistance by Andrej Beštak

MAZEL TOV



2019
MAZEL TOV
video of a performance
1’43’’
2019.


Freedom. I feel it in the thin, soft breeze that is the simultaneity of the perception of the rock on my right and the sea on my left. It is the simultaneity that frees us from the notion of time. Just like a wheel that is moving both forward and backward at the same time, appearing to the observers as merely standing still.




The movie Fiddler on the Roof (1971.), although set in a time before around 100 years, is perfectly applicable to the present. The question it poses is that of tradition and its importance and position in contemporary society. What happens when a person loses the organic identity that ties her/him to the land and culture she/he stems from? Perhaps we are losing a part of ourselves; an anchor that once gave us belief in more humble and natural values of life.




The work "Mazel Tov" is a reference to a wedding scene from the movie mentioned above. It is set in a small Russian village facing crucial socio-political changes that finally culminate with the rupture of war. In the wedding celebration scene, after the ceremony, a couple of dancers make a traditional dance with bottles on their heads. Referring to their choreography I am dancing my own version of the bottle dance, with it giving homage to both fragility and strenght of tradition and freedom.




ONE RAKIA FOR THE DEAD



2019/2021

ONE RAKIA FOR THE DEAD
mixed media, performance
2019/2021

In almost every culture, alcohol holds a specific place. Many times it represents simply a banal tool of self-indulgence, but it also holds enormous powerful potential. I am not equipped to dig too deeply into the global social meanings of it, but I can speak from my viewpoint. In the Balkan, at least, homemade rakia holds a special place in the heart of the people. It is very much an alchemical process, to make good rakia. And when done well, it is really the cure for wounds of any kind. It is a purifier in many ways and one of the most powerful uses of it, in my opinion, is when drunk in memory of the dead.




The work consists of a wheel of fortune, a book, a tablecloth, two small glasses and a bottle of rakia, all placed on a table. The wheel of fortune has 14 parts, each of them representing a different healing plant that can be easily found in forests, fields or valleys in eastern europe and




Balkan, and that a lot of our grandmothers have or had circulating in their homes at all times. In the book, old folk recipes mentioning those and many other plants can be found.




Next to the table, I am sitting on a chair with my musical instrument. There is only one song played live by me for the duration of the performance, in intervals. The song is mine, and the lyrics speak of endless travels. First, the song is played, then the visitors are called to come and drink one glass of rakia in memory of the dead, following which they are invited to spin the wheel of fortune and get their guardian plant. After that, the glasses are washed in a bowl, wiped, and placed again on the table. This circle of actions is repeated until the bottle is emptied and the purification process has managed to make a cycle.



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photos by Nenad Glavan for MSU and Sarah Dubny

BABA JAGA IGRA MAGA



2018
BABA JAGA IGRA MAGA
etching, litography, text, performance, game
2018


Baba Jaga Igra Maga is a game of cards based on old Slavic mythology and stories, as well as my own interpretation of them. In the people, Baba Yaga is most often known as a witch that punishes bad children. But she is also the holder of positive aspects, if one deserves it.

Following that, Baba Yaga represents an old Slavic idea of karma, and there lies the backbone of this work. The deck contains 21 cards, and the base is 7 different cards, repeated three times in the deck. Each of the 7 cards represents one old Slavic symbol for a god or a godly aspect, and every card holds a specific message.




The game is a will of destiny. It is designed for two players, and although the winner is the one who gets more points, it is more important for the players to finish with as similar a result as possible. The number of cards is odd, so the last card left has to be earned, and it is earned by the one who gives Baba Yaga a nicer poem. For the last card, the numeric value is not as important as the message it carries.
TTEXPNo.1
(TIME TRAVEL EXPERIMENT No. 1)

discursive game/workshop
2018-


What separates the past from the future is simply a point of view. Both past and future being merely ideas, it is in the way we exercise them that they become true. The way humans perceive reality is through stories. We form an idea based on belief, and depending on the number of individuals that choose to engage in the given idea, it makes it more or less part of the collective reality.

This is how traditions were and still are born, the only difference being the context of reality and the system of values in a given time and space.




For a moment, we will put ourselves in the mindset of scientists in a future very far away. Those scientists find an archeological site that is for them a past, but from our current point of view, it is also a future, although a bit of a closer one. The workshop starts with this thesis and presents to the participants the 14 symbols that are found in the before mentioned archeological site. All the symbols are carved in acrylic glass, in pieces 4x4 cm. Every participant takes one or two symbols and creates the story around the idea he/she thinks it used to represent for the civilization that used to inhabit the area. Further on, all the participants create one coherent theory, following which a model for this story is built. Are we able to create  the future we desire to be a part of, by recreating an idea of the past from a future far away? This is the main thought investigated.




The result of the workshop is a booklet and the model, be it physical or virtual, representing the findings of scientists/workshop participants. The workshop has been held four times so far as part of various artistic manifestations.

PHOTOWORKS



2017-2021
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MOROCCAN SILENCE
35 mm film photos, text
2018


You awake at a given moment. A moment without numbers. The moment breaths, expands, enlarges, becoming as large as the abyss of the ocean, sand and dunes that surround you.You lay and observe. This is the sacred moment built by you, the sand and the ocean alone. This is the moment that is yesterday and tomorrow, and it will be the same the day after tomorrow and the day before yesterday. You lay with a grin on your face; you, the only subject of this joke, aware of it, unburdened by it.






POLLES AGAPES GNWRISA
35 mm film photo, text
2019


Πολλές αγάπες γνώρισα,
αγάπησα και χώρισα


we are here to tell the story
of the foggy
thin line


which tightens, to widen,
which thinks for itself
and knows the most


to float in the point zero with it
is the moment of immortality
—but that pain has to be overlived


Πολλές αγάπες γνώρισα



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THE TOWER OF VELES
35 mm film photo, text, silkscreen on textile
2018


There exists a tower of time that emits the present and is responsible for our perception of time in the shape of present, future and past. It is located amidst a corn field and to people who can even perceive it, it looks like a plain electrical tower. It is his current form. It actually contains his physical form simply for fun and as a joke, because in reality it is not as necessary. If it wishes, it can go down into the ground and through it emit its signals of presence. Some believe that the tower is actually a work of Veles, the old Slavic god of magic that lives in the underground where he guards the souls of the dead. Death would not be possible without time, and Veles is known for his mischiefs. In any case, the tower has not always been in its current form and it is not known when it actually came to be at the given place. All we know is that it is located amidst a corn field.






ABOUT


A life of a storyteller is an excitement indeed. Many are the fascinations, possible of arising at any given moment of the most common day imaginable. Each new work that is made is a new path opening - a new dimension coming to existence. I hope to inspire the audience to join me in this adventure of travelling through possibilities, in slowly but surely mastering the art of creation, in union with one another.


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CONTACT

mail: elena.strok@yahoo.com
instagram: @b_varka

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

HEALING WATER BOOK
Garaža Kamba, Zagreb, Croatia
In cooperation with Dora Fodor

BABY UNIVERSE
Prostor, Split, Croatia, 2021

BABY UNIVERSE
Gallery SC, Zagreb, Croatia, 2021

ARTEFACTS OF COMMUNICATION
Gallery R3a, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018


GROUP EXHIBITIONS


36. SALON MLADIH
HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia, 2022

COLLECTIVE CARE
OKNa, Porto, Portugal, 2021

ZENIT 21/21
FLU Beograd, Belgrade, Serbia, 2021

MOGUĆNOSTI ZA '21
Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, 2021

AREAS OF PRESENCE
Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia, 2021

OPEN STUDIO: SOFT REFLECTION OF A TENDER NONSENSE DANCE
De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal, 2020

DRAVA ART BIENNALE ‘19
Gallery Osijek, Osijek, Croatia, 2020

OPEN STUDIO: GONE FISHING
De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal, 2020

MATRIX: SPACE OF FREEDOM
Gallery SC, Zagreb, Croatia, 2019

ALU ZAGREB: IZLOŽBA NAJUSPJEŠNIJIH STUDENATA
gallery Bunker, Samobor, Croatia, 2019

OPEN STUDIO: FOUND IN TRANSLATION
De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal, 2019

OPEN STUDIO: LUCKY STUCK
De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal, 2019

OPEN STUDIO: RECEPTIVE BARRIER
De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal, 2019

DRAVA ART BIENNALE ‘19
Gallery Koprivnica, Koprivnica, Croatia, 2019

ARTY PARTY: DOBAR LOŠ ZAO
Garaža Kamba, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018

SIMULTATIONS
Gallery SKC, Rijeka, Croatia, 2018

PIČKIN DIM
Esseker centar, Osijek, Croatia, 2018

OTHER PROJECTS AND WORKSHOPS

CULTUREHUB CROATIA: REFRESH+
author and leader of workshop TTEXPNo.1.2, Split, Croatia


SUMMER LAB: TREES IN THE CITY 
educational art project as part of ACT Europe network, organized by Bunker assiciation, Ljubljana, Slovenia


CULTUREHUB CROATIA: REFRESH+
author and leader of workshop TTEXPNo.1, online


PARADOX STUDENT BIENNALE: FUTURE TRADITIONS
author and leader of workshop TTEXPNo.1, Riga, Latvia, 2019


MATRIX: SPACE OF FREEDOM
educational research art project, OLR Plemenitaš, Plemenitaš, Croatia, 2019


PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP SOFIJA
printmaking workshop, Bogdanci, North Macedonia, 2018


MATRIX: SOUND
educational research art project, OLR Plemenitaš, Plemenitaš, Croatia, 2018


CIRCUS AS A WAY OF LIFE
international project containing educational workshops on contemporary circus, as part of the project performances on:

Špancirfest, Varaždin, Croatia, 2014

Festival uličnih svirača, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2014

International Street Theatre Festival Athens, Greece, 2014

Špancirfest, Varaždin, Croatia, 2013

EDUCATION


ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS ZAGREB
class of Mirjana Vodopija, MA (Summa cum laude), 2021


DE LICEIRAS 18
cultural platform for artistic residencies, Porto, Portugal, Erasmus+ internship, 2019/2020


ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS ZAGREB
class of Mirjana Vodopija, BA (Magna cum laude), 2019


ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS PRAGUE
class of Pavla Sceranková and Dušan Zahoransky, Erasmus+ exchange, 2019


MUSIC SCHOOL VARAŽDIN
musician guitarist, class of Marko Žerjav, 2015


Ist GYMNASIUM VARAŽDIN
2015