PODCAST #1 — LIDIJA BURČAK — EPISODES & EXPLORATION

JUNE 26, 2020

Quote—Unquote’s podcast series provides a broadcast space for sound works, spoken word practice, readings, teachings and aural miscellanea by artists, anthropologists and researchers. The first episode has writer Lidija Burčak deconstruct the processes of writing&publicly reading her personal diary.

Intimacy has deeply infiltrated the quotidian grid of many during the past three months. Its presence became almost suffocating. The sudden creation of strong intimacies within the space of our differently-dimensioned homes has become like a testing ground. It was the self facing itself in some cases. It was also the self assiduously facing the online realms. Decomposition and decay surfaced out everywhere, followed by hope and a sense of potentiality.

Intimacy is a leitmotif in Lidija Burčak’s practice and explorations, films and writings. Keeping a diary for over 30 years now, she started writing when she was 7, after being offered the first diary notebook to overcome a disappointing moment of not being invited to a birthday party.

30 years later, Lidija began to read segments of diaries in public circles, which grew bigger and bigger. Even after an entire tour throughout Switzerland, she claims that she is an “expert in writing with no goal, no pressure and absolutely no intention of success“.

The voice of a previous self embodies into halls of dozens of people, all of them attuned to echoes of emotions that were reverse-engineered in a writing process, as a method of understanding them. In Lidija’s words, 

the diary is where the judgemental voice and the non-judgemental voice can meet and have this discussion. The most important ingredient in achieving this flow is to detect exaggeration, lies, and most importantly, judgement. The reason I say this is because whenever I try to lie to myself, to intentionally forget to write down something, the truth is coming up, pushing from somewhere deep down.

Lidija’s Quote—Unquote Podcast contribution episodes&exploration is an invitation to revisit these processes and the ways in which they evolved, galvanised or gained a life of their own after giving them a voice, both in writing and in speech.

BIO

LIDIJA BURČAK — I am a writer and director. My autobiographical pieces of writing are diary-like, which means they are led by intuition and instant emotions. My visual practice is playful and includes experiment and coincidence, trial and error. I mastered this so-called autoethnographical approach in London where I graduated in visual anthropology at Goldsmiths University in 2018. Prior to my studies, I worked as a journalist. Besides that, I work on different film projects as a script supervisor/script continuity for Swiss films. My parents are from the former Yugoslavia. I was born and raised in Switzerland.