Cheese and Cream

Kristina Leko, 2002/03
77' DV (20' + 18' + 39')
Three-channel video installation / Optional: three-channel video installation expanded by objects and artifacts (edition 3 + 2)
Croatian with English subtitles or Croatian with Croatian subtitles



Context

This video work is part of Kristina Leko's Cheese and Cream project,
a long-term research, documentary and activist project that resulted in a series of artworks, artifacts, happenings and actions in progress from 2002 to 2013, dedicated to the support and protection of Zagreb's dairy women. From 2002 to 2004, the project was initiated and realized in cooperation with the non-profit organization BLOK - Local Base for Culture Refreshment, Zagreb.

Description

Each of the three video channels (projections) shows the dairymaids on an open marketplace in the center of Zagreb. From left to right, according to the spatial order of appearance, the first video projection shows the milkmaids on the Dolac open farmers’ market, the second on the Britanski market and the third on the Kvatrić market. The three video projections have a similar structure. One after the other, we see flash image portraits of the dairy women and their short video statements. The women were filmed while selling their homemade fresh cheese and cream. We see their faces, their hands, details of their outfits, and their products. We see footage of them offering their goods and talking to their customers, packing the goods, receiving money, etc. Some of them briefly address the audience and talk about their personal situation. They complain about their working and living conditions, about the recession, about the fact that they have no one to help them, no one to take over their work and their job. In the first video projection, between the video sequences showing the dairy women, a series of short on-screen texts explain the tradition and importance of the dairy women for the city of Zagreb, as well as their current position, which is threatened by the upcoming EU legislation. Throughout the three wall projections, we see a constant stream of mostly elderly women either seeking eye contact or sharing their problems with the audience. Through these statements, the artwork provides an insight not only into the everyday life of the dairy women, but also into a broader political and economic situation of Croatian society. On the other hand, the video recordings of the dairy women's products and their outfits archive aesthetic and ethnographic aspects of this endangered profession: characteristic arrangements of the goods in many variations, different types and forms of fresh cheese, various pots, dishes, and packaging materials used by the milkmaids, and the like. The artwork is also an ethnographic archive of the three Zagreb marketplaces and their specific differences in terms of: traditional costumes, language and dialects, and local dairy tradition.

Note on display: Depending on the context of the presentation, this video installation was/has been exhibited together with a selection of objects and artifacts from the Cheese and Cream project, such as: The Book of Requests for the 22nd Century, a work in progress since 2002, The Collection of Dishtowels of the Zagreb Dairywomen, a collection of objects, 2003, A Monday at the Trešnjevka Market, a collection of objects, 2003, 448 Questionnaires, an object (a collection of documents), 2003, Objects from the Milk 2002 Action, 2002, and others. From 2002 to 2006, The Book of Requests for the 22nd Century was included in project presentations and exhibition displays to give the audience the opportunity to sign the Declaration on the Zagreb Dairywomen and thus symbolically support the initiative to protect these women and their agency as cultural heritage.

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