Overstrung, Kooperator Space, Aberdeen 2025, Stills from video by Sasha TSE.
This durational, intense sensory performance explores the idea of the body as an instrument. Loaded histories of Western classical music training for Maja are closely intertwined with gender stereotypes, oppression, family violence and experience of conflict. She grew up listening to hours of repetitive piano practice in a room exposed to daily shelling during the siege of Sarajevo. In that room, she learned about love, violence and loss through sound that I experienced deeply in the resonant chambers of her body.
During this performance piece, Maja attempts to entwine her limbs in the piano wires, which we know can make sound, as well as slice and cut tissues and interrupt breath. By tethering on the edges of (sonic) feedback, and bathing in reverb held by the gallery space, she explores the tensions and vibrations of flesh and bones with the intention of probing deeper beneath the surface.
