Artist Mila Panić is presenting herself to the local audience for the first time as a stand-up comedian. Her performance is part of Antonela Solenički‘s At the Tip of the Tongue exhibition, which is the result of the NOVAci project, conducted in collaboration of WHW and Pogon. The open forum is a new practice of Mila Panić, initiated in 2022, and it arose from her hobby of stand-up, through which she became interested in applying such strategy to the format of public artistic conversations.

In this case, without an additional mediator, the artist and the audience form an opinion together. By proposing certain topics and expressing the opinion by the artist, the audience is invited to comment and give their perspective, thus potentially opening up a space for dialogue, while allowing both parties to use the ˝punch up’ strategy.

Mila Panić explains ˝punch-up˝ as ˝making jokes at the expense of someone who has a higher level of power in terms of status or privilege. For example, racist jokes are ‘punch down’ because they are to the detriment of groups with less social power. If you reverse them and make the dominant group the target instead, ˝punch up˝ can be a lot of fun.˝

The programme is supported by: 
Office for Culture, Intercity and International Cooperation and Civil Society
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Croatian Audiovisual Center
The Kultura Nova Foundation