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As we get closer to the work Chess of Rights, a chess game examining the eight stages of identity development based on psychoanalyst Erik Erikson’s theory, Knezović elaborates:‘It’s intended as an illusive and almost meditative game. Inspired by a chess template, the installation consists of a handmade silky-cotton white textile board and circular pawns, each embossed with a specific emotional role like ‘compromise’, ‘shame’ or ‘acceptance’. The  game’s objective is not to checkmate the opponent’s kin, but to deviate from individual strategy and engage with the emotions of the other player. By the game’s end, pawns are so thoroughly mixed that contradictions dissolve.’

Annosh Urbanke: Your game encourages individual and collective navigation for queer futures. Do you have a specific vision for that future

Andrea Knezović: ‘It should always exude playfulness. I explore speculative aspects of queer futures, finding ways to assemble, create and investigate different thought styles and behavioral strategies. Not to achieve a specific, singular future, but to breath live into a multiplicity of potentials. My interest lies in reflecting the multiplicities of realities, rather than a singular utopian reality.’

Annosh Urbanke: Your work reflects a strong optimism towards ‘failure’ and ‘losing’. Could you elaborate?

Andrea Knezović: ‘Every failure is an opportunity for a new becoming. It offers fresh reflections on how we perceive ourselves within a care system. I’m particularly interested in negotiating the idea of certainty from social and institutional perspectives. Speculative thinking and playing with new ideas contribute to rethinking rigid ideas, allowing for alternative outcomes and restructuring desires and expectations. These elements are crucial for establishing sustainable internal (intimate) and external (societal) care structures, revealing what works and what doesn’t.’

In another corner of the gallery, Knezović exhibits a hanging textile banner with embroidery. ‘This is one of the most recent works’, she tells me, pointing to one side reading ‘Sometimes it is a miracle we all listen’ and the other side continuing, ‘Perhaps it is a wonder we continue to play’. Knezović links this to José E. Muñoz’s work on queer optimism and its role in re-imagining queer temporality, referencing 1970s queer protests in the US. I am flirting with the art of embroidery and patchwork to juxtapose these protests with comfort, particularly as these two paradigms often exist on opposite ends of the spectrum within queer reality.’

The colors red, white and black appear prominently in Knezović’s work, drawing inspiration from Yugoslav Conceptualism. Artists who employed these colors questioned the prescribed color schemes in socialist society. For instance, Mladen Stilinović found the revered socialist symbols such as the color red to be distressing and sought to ‘de-symbolize’ this particular hue. In one of his series of photographs, he deliberately cut his finger with a razor and inscribed ‘My Red’ using the blood on his palm. His intention was to illustrate that the experience of a color should be a personal and individual matter, a sentiment he believed was denied in socialist ideology.

Knezović continues: ‘In Zagreb and Ljubljana, where I grew up and undertook the initial part of my art studies, artists like Mladen Stilinović, to some extent Sanja Iveković and the art collective Gorgona inspired me. Stilinović’s influence on my work is directly observable in the continuation of the tradition of using the color red as an artistic signature. On the other hand, there was also the influence of conceptual artists like Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry, and, of course, stanley brouwn. For example, Weiner’s and Barry’s play with language and vinyl is closely connected with my large-scale vinyl diagrammatic installation The Mess We Come To Love – The Constellations series, one of which is currently on display as part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art Metelkova in Ljubljana.’

The pieces in the exhibition feature concise, poetic messages, consisting of words that directly address or instruct the reader, interwoven with personal thoughts. We examine a series of three paper-based works with drawings and written texts, hanging side by side. One of them reads: ‘Play, play, play. Play by the way you care. Forget every time you lose.’ The tone, from the perspective of the viewer or reader, is inviting, encouraging participation, and prompting contemplation for answers.

We delve into a discussion about the voices present in the various works: ‘It’s almost a choir’, Knezović explains. ‘There is a plurality of voices in my head. I employ an auto-ethnographic approach, attempting to delve into my own different expressions on care. For example, in the series titled Games We Play, I perceive those notes as negotiations on paper. They sometimes emerge as thoughts in-between, scores or instructions, or remnants of a process, or as something to work on. It is my expression of thinking. And I invite the audience to engage and witness that.

Annosh Urbanke: How do games and care connect in your work?

Andrea Knezović: ‘When I refer to care, I’m not just referring to its literal aspects (physical, emotional or clinical caregiving and caretaking). I am also considering how the language of a particular intellectual system, protocol or mindset influence specific ways of imagining, practising, or managing care. Games deal with certainty, which allows for the exploration of the concept of rules, losers, and winners. I’m exploring queer and non-resolutionary aspects of games, reflecting diverse strategies and approaches to creating systems. I ask myself: how can we play a game that is not focused on winning or losing, but instead focuses on different kinds of emergencies, articulations and styles of movement?’