Milica Tomić

Milica Tomić’s performance The Berlin Statement. Who Makes Profit on Art and Who Gains From It Honestly? extends the Edinburgh Statement by Yugoslav conceptual artist Raša Todosijević (1945–2024). He wrote and performed this work in 1975 as a sharp critique and analysis of the power relations within the global art system. Todosijević exposes the structural positions these relations occupy—the roles, functions, and economic interests, defining art as a permanent site of conflict, embedded in the politics of its context. In her performance, Tomić builds on this foundation by using space and language to expose the evolving roles, struggles, and dynamics within today’s art system, adding new positions in response to contemporary realities. Her work reflects the shifts in the art world under the pressure of global neoliberal capitalism and the rise of oligarchic technocracy, revealing how class struggle continues to manifest within art.

The Edinburgh Statement was first reinterpreted by Tomić in 2012 as part of the Pančevo Biennial and the October XXX symposium. She further updated the work in 2016, providing a feminist reworking of the original text in a new version entitled The Nottingham Statement, and in 2022 she performed a new iteration, The Belgrade Statement, in the 59th October Salon, reframed within a new cultural and political context.

Milica Tomić, *1960 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Places of belonging: Belgrade, Zenica, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Graz, Vienna. Affinity: Grupa Spomenik, Four Faces of Omarska, Annenstrasse 53. Book: Geography of Looking. Matter of Appearance, 2023.