On Wednesday, December 4, from 12-1:20pm, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) will host a talk with Croatian artist Arijana Lekić-Fridrih, the subject of Rebekah Modrak’s new single-essay book: Arijana Lekić-Fridrih: All Art is a Political Statement (Disobedience Press, 2024).

The essay introduces audiences to the work of Lekić-Fridrih and, in particular, to her Silent Mass, a performance resisting the “Be Manly” movement, a series of mass prayer events held in Croatian public squares by a battalion of men who pray for the abolition of women’s rights, for women’s “chastity,” and for men’s “masculine authority.” Arijana Lekić-Fridrih: All Art is a Political Statement links the erosion of women’s rights across intercontinental boundaries and offers Lekić-Fridrih’s video interviews and public performances as a guide for activism and collective action against retrograde restrictions on the freedom of women.

During the event, Lekić-Fridrih will be in conversation with Rebekah Modrak and and writer and professor Brian Willems (University of Split). The event will take place in Room 555 Weiser Hall, University of Michign.

The event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design.