Performance: TRANSFIGURATION (PAIN)

TRANSFIGURATION (PAIN)

October 17, 2025

7:00-9:00pm

Doors at 6:30pm

Tickets:

Free with RSVP

The performance PAIN derives from Branko Milisković’s earlier work STABAT MATER, itself inspired by the 13th-century hymn dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who stands at the foot of the Cross mourning the death of her son, Jesus Christ. In this performance, Milisković recites the first three lines of the hymn in Latin while alternating between standing, sitting, and slowly walking through the library of the International Museum of Surgical Science. Through this measured and ritualistic movement, the artist seeks to construct a deeply affective and meditative environment—one that evokes an operatic intensity while negotiating the intersections between scientific inquiry and religious dogma in the understanding of the human body. The work interrogates notions of suffering and endurance as vehicles for transcendence, positioning pain as both a physical and spiritual conduit for transformation and passage from one state of being to another.

Branko Milisković (b. 1982, Belgrade, Serbia) studied Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. He continued his undergraduate studies as a Dutch Government scholar at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where he graduated from the Department of 3D Art in 2009. In 2012, he earned his Master’s degree from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Department of Extended Media. Milisković’s artistic practice encompasses live performance, mono-opera, photography, text, sound, and video. His projects have been presented at numerous international and local festivals, exhibitions, and residencies, including Reims Scènes d’Europe (Reims, France, 2015); CSW/CoCA (Toruń, Poland); Kampnagel (Hamburg, Germany); Halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels, Belgium); Utrecht Film Festival and TENT Rotterdam (The Netherlands); CIRCA – Art Actuel (Montreal, Canada); Live Art Development Agency (London, United Kingdom); The Tank (New York City, USA); the 57th October Salon (Belgrade, Serbia); and Kunsthaus Graz (Austria), among others. His work has also been featured on Croatian Radio 3. Milisković’s practice and contribution to performance art are discussed in Performance Art in Eastern Europe since 1960 by Dr. Amy Bryzgel.