The Passion of Slovenia

Lina Akif
The Passion of Slovenia
Video installation
2021–2022

In Slovenian

On 9 September 2021, Lina Akif set out on a ten-hour climb up Mount Triglav to perform twelve Stations of the Cross, only instead of a cross, she wore the heavy Kurent costume. The spectators helped her by untying a handkerchief from the costume and carrying it, as their figurative burden, to the mountaintop. In her durational performance, the Slovenian artist of Sudanese-Hungarian descent carried the burden of constantly having to prove her nationality to the altar of Slovenianhood. To lift the burden of foreignness, she explored her attitude towards her homeland, but this burden, symbolically depicted in the video installation by the Kurent’s head, addresses the making of identity in general and exposes the problem of convictions, falsely ascribing people this or that nationality exclusively on the basis of their skin colour or appearance.

Concept, performance: Lina Akif; also performing: Gaja Filač, Klemen Kovačič, Iva Slosar, Anja Jeršan, Blaž Šef, Luka Miklošič, Boris Ostan, Nina Kuclar Stiković, Nejc Žorž, dog Bart; dramaturgs: Nina Kuclar Stiković, Nika Korenjak; camera: Dare Sintič, Domen Ožbot; editing: Luka Miklošič, Ema Radovan; mentor: Boris Ostan; technical assistance: Sandi Skok, Domen Lušin; production: Academy of Theatre, Radio and Television of the Ljubljana University; co-production: Zavod Melara, Kulturni zavod Godot.