The Other Side

“The Other Side” by Andrea Dramićanin is an exhibition that showcases two series of drawings, both of which feature masks of shame as the main motif. The masks were used as a type of torture device to punish perpetrators of specific crimes and to publicly humiliate them. The exhibition explores the repression that women have suffered throughout history and the struggle to balance personal and public expectations.

In the first series, “Wicked Games,” female figures are depicted in cheerleading formations with masks of shame on their heads. Despite wearing an instrument of torture, they seem to do so defiantly, with fury and threat in their gaze. In the second series, “My Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing,” the masks of shame are presented in an aestheticized way, with heavy metal objects rendered in a light form with shades of baby blue and pink. This ambivalence causes discomfort, forcing the viewer to question the cause of the transformation of such a cruel object.

The exhibition draws a parallel between the struggle to fulfill society’s expectations and the struggle to define one’s own identity. The pressure and control faced by women are challenges that every woman encounters from an early age, leading to self-control as a protection mechanism against public condemnations that will inevitably follow if one deviates from prescribed norms. Despite the brutality and morbidness of the exhibition’s symbolism, the figures depicted are not passive but instead represent resistance to repression.

Overall, “The Other Side” is a thought-provoking exhibition that explores the complex relationship between personal and public expectations, and the enduring struggle of women to define their own identities in patriarchal societies.