Exhibition, News:

Green Island Biennale, Taiwan

May 17 – September 21, 2025, Green Island White Terror Memorial Park, Taiwan / Curator: Nobuo Takamori

The pro­ject You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It by Andreja Kulunčić was pre­sen­ted at the inter­na­ti­onal Green Island Human Rights Art Festival (Green Island Biennale), held in Taiwan from May 17 to September 21, 2025, cura­ted by Nobuo Takamori.

The pro­ject, deve­lo­ped in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with ant­hro­po­lo­gist and femi­nist the­orist Renata Jambrešić Kirin and psyc­hot­he­ra­pist Dubravka Stijačić, addre­sses the topic of the women’s poli­ti­cal pri­son camp on Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur as part of the bro­ader his­tory of repre­ssi­on in soci­alist Yugoslavia. Through per­so­nal tes­ti­mo­ni­es, arc­hi­val frag­ments, and artis­tic inter­pre­ta­ti­on, the pro­ject explo­res how women were puni­shed for poli­ti­cal dissent, sus­pec­ted dis­loyal­ty to ide­ology, or sim­ply for rema­ining silent.

Within the con­text of the Green Island Biennale, the work was fur­t­her con­textu­ali­zed by drawing con­nec­ti­ons with Taiwan’s his­tory of poli­ti­cal violen­ce during the peri­od known as the White Terror (1949 – 1987), when tho­usan­ds of people were impri­so­ned, tor­tu­red, or exe­cu­ted for real or per­ce­ived poli­ti­cal thre­ats to the regi­me. Green Island itself was one of the main sites of poli­ti­cal repre­ssi­on during that time and has sin­ce been tran­sfor­med into a memo­ri­al com­plex. This geograp­hic and his­to­ri­cal reso­nan­ce betwe­en Goli Otok and Green Island ena­bled a deeper dialo­gue on women’s expe­ri­en­ces of impri­son­ment, silen­ce, exi­le, and ide­olo­gi­cal violen­ce — beyond the boun­da­ri­es of spe­ci­fic geograp­hi­es or poli­ti­cal systems.

The mul­ti­me­dia video ins­tal­la­ti­on was exhi­bi­ted wit­hin the memo­ri­al com­plex of the for­mer poli­ti­cal pri­son on Green Island. The work was based on video pro­jec­ti­ons explo­ring women’s expe­ri­en­ces of poli­ti­cal repre­ssi­on and tra­uma thro­ugh dan­ce, voice, and sound, per­for­med by dan­cer Zrinka Užbinec, ins­tru­men­ta­list Jasna Jovićević, and voca­list Annette Giesriegl, and recor­ded at his­to­ri­cal sites in Croatia. The exhi­bi­ti­on also inclu­ded docu­men­tary seg­ments – tes­ti­mo­ni­es of for­mer fema­le poli­ti­cal pri­so­ners – as well as pos­ters that visi­tors were invi­ted to take with them.

Project pro­duc­ti­on: Green Island Biennale (Taiwan), National Human Rights Museum (Taipei, Taiwan), Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia

feminism, Goli otok, political