SANJA IVEKOVIC ::::
born in 1949, Zagreb, Croatia
lives and works in Zagreb

Ivekovic is a feminist artist working in her native Croatia. She began exhibiting her photo montages, videos, performances, and installations in the mid-70s, questioning images and identities promoted by the mass media. Ivekovic questions how the rituals of everyday life are influenced by popular culture—she always places herself within the male gaze, politicizing sexuality and gender. Her more recent work deals with the collapse of former Yugoslavia—ethnic cleansing, the living conditions of refugees, and women’s antifascist resistance.

In Attention: Women at Work!, Ivekovic deconstructs stereotypical gender representation used in traffic signs, thereby promoting a feminist critique of the division of labor according to gender. For this project, the artist transforms the usual traffic sign, which shows a male figure with a spade (to mark work on the street), into one showing a female figure with a spade. Along with this traffic sign is an image with a caption pointing out how much unpaid housework women do. Originally installed at the crossroads of Komenskega and Resljeva streets in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2006, it has now been installed for World Factory on the streets outside the SFAI Chestnut street campus.