a menopausal-swimming calendar
embroidery on cotton
As part of many women struggling with feelings of isolation and menopause, and as a feminist, I embraced the changes in my body as politics, and have initiated the research project Changed by Water, intending to balance the hormonal changes felt during menopause, by reconnecting with water through daily acts of swimming in official and unofficial bathing places throughout Berlin, and wherever I was traveling.
Utilising the healing power of water, I’ve set up a number of workshops as a collective spaces to share and exchange on the often silenced and under-researched topic of menopause, and to practise swimming exercises, share food, book tips and watch movies with a circle of women in Berlin, Palić and Subotica.
In parallel, and later, with a help of thread and ink, I’ve been working on mapping out strategies to touch and change through bodies of water, and through women’s collective knowledges, embroidering those experiences onto textiles and series of drawings.
I own a great gratitude to all of the workshops participants, for sharing and for swimming with me. I am grateful to the entire team of the Haus of World Cultures Berlin for the curatorial support and for commissioning the project Changed by Water for “Forgive us our Trespasses” exhibition (September-December 2024).
#menopause,#feministart, #textileart, #embroidery, #womensknowledge, #urbanswimmingcultures, #tanjaostojić, #tanjaostojic
TANJA OSTOJIĆ 