On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the public performance “Echo” took place today in the center of Zagreb, an artistic action by Arijana Lekić-Fridrih, realized in collaboration with the Vakat Collective.
This performative act emerges as an artistic and political response to increasingly visible social regressions in the field of women’s rights, as well as a call for the public recognition of women’s experiences that continue to be systematically pushed to the margins of social and political space.
During the performance, the artist publicly read authentic demands, messages, and experiences of girls and women collected in the lead-up to the event. These voices come from different generations and social contexts, speaking about everyday experiences of gender discrimination, economic inequality, insecurity in public space, restrictions on reproductive rights, and the ongoing struggle against violence against women.
The spoken messages were accompanied by a sound score functioning as an “echo of collective resistance and solidarity,” transforming individual voices into a shared space of resonance. In this space, personal experiences become a political fact, recalling the fundamental feminist premise that women’s private experiences are inseparably linked to broader structures of power.
The performance was created in the context of the alarming position of women in Croatia, where, despite formal legislative frameworks, gender inequalities continue to be reproduced through everyday practices and public discourse. High rates of gender-based violence, frequent cases of femicide, unequal position of women in the labor market, limited access to political decision-making, and increasingly strong anti-gender narratives in the public sphere point to deeply rooted structural problems. In recent years, the public space has increasingly been marked by sexist statements from politicians and public figures, further normalizing a discourse that relativizes women’s experiences and questions their fundamental rights.
Within this context, the artist also vocalized sexist statements made in public discourse over the past year, presenting them to the audience and confronting them with the authentic experiences of women. This approach exposes the gap between everyday lived realities and the political and social narratives that often deny or trivialize those realities.
The final part of the performance included a choral rendition of feminist ganga songs, a reinterpretation of a traditional vocal form which in this context becomes a voice of solidarity, resistance, and mutual support. After the final performance, participants quietly left the space, leaving behind a symbolic trace of a collective voice in the very center of the city.
Echo affirms public space as a site of political and artistic action where women’s voices can be heard beyond institutional frameworks. Through the artistic language of voice, presence, and collectivity, Arijana Lekić-Fridrih reminds us that women’s rights are fundamental human rights, and that the struggle for equality is not a completed historical chapter but an ongoing social process.
Echo is an attempt to return women’s voices to public space as a collective voice that refuses silence and demands safety, equality, and dignity.
The performance was produced by the Domino association.
