In the framework of Dopolavoro flagship of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project, Rijeka-based artist Milijana Babić and Centre for Women’s Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka collaborated on a research project entitled 3rd Shift.
The traditional two shifts of woman’s work, paid and unpaid, are to a great extent still recognisable models of the functioning of women in the context of the phenomenon of work. In the project, the syntagm “third shift” is used as a name for the repairing of the female body, with the work on herself so that a woman brings herself to the ideal beautiful one according to society’s imposed image of being female.
Project 3rd shift refers to two segments of women’s work and connects the idea of work and that of free time, but more important than that, in its seemingly frivolous role to the specific methods it influences the working aspects of women’s lives.
Within the project, several months of field research were conducted in Rijeka beauty salons where about 60 salon users were interviewed. On the basis of the collected material, a publication that simulates a women’s magazine was created.
Publication 3. smjena (digital edition), originally published in Gloria Glam magazine
The focus of the project is to find the answer to the question of whether women’s time, energy, resources, risks, reflections and strategies, invested in contemporary beauty work practices, are even understood as work.
About the authors
Milijana Babić is a Rijeka-based artist who focuses on a number of studies and findings regarding the rights of the weakest and most vulnerable social groups, such as the elderly, unemployed or women. Her recent work is mainly rooted in performative art practice, often developing in direction of contextually specific long term actions in public space. Starting point of her work is her own position as a woman and an artist which she questions in her immediate surroundings. She holds a BA in fine arts from the Durban Institute of Technology, Durban, Republic of South Africa, and MA from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is a long-term collaborator of the City of Women festival in Ljubljana. Between 2007-2014 she worked as an associate at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka. She is a member of the artists association Delta 5 in Rijeka. Her work has been exhibited international
The Center for Women’s Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka was established in March 2016 as a research platform for scientists, artists, and civil sector activists engaged with feminism, gender, critical theory, and sexuality. The Center seeks to strengthen scientific knowledge in the creation of a society of equal opportunities for all citizens and to spread awareness of the importance of gender equality, respect for women’s human rights, and the rights of all vulnerable minorities. Furthermore, it promotes collaboration among scientists whose research interests are based on related to feminist theory, gender issues, and theories of sexuality and/or sex/gender identity, regardless of their starting point, scientific perspective, or discipline. The Center also organizes events that are socially relevant to the local milieu, as well as in broader contexts, including first of all regional contexts. The Center’s planned activities at the moment are seek both to open possibilities and to build infrastructure for (inter)national collaborations at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka.
