Tanja Ostojić’s work is characterized by her feminist understanding of the body as a political space and as a medium to refer to collectivity, especially amongst women in society. Ostojić became known for her radical performance Looking for a Husband with EU Passport (2000–5), in which she questioned the arrogance of the European Union in its attempt to integrate Southeastern Europe. By publishing her classified advertisement for a husband in the form of an online performance, Ostojić publicly addressed a taboo subject for many women for whom EU residency is often only possible through marriage. In the same vein, her popular poster After Courbet, L’Origine du monde (2005) appropriated Gustave Courbet’s painting L’Origine du monde (1866) by recreating the model’s played pose with her own body, wearing instead blue underwear adorned with the EU circle of stars. In her Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić (2013–17), Ostojić brings together the stories of thirty- three women, all named Tanja Ostojić, who participated in a community project as ‘name-sisters’ coming from different generations and geographies to share their stories of migration after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. For Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Vergib uns unsere Schuld, Ostojić initiated the research project Changed by Water (2024), 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. Drawing on the healing power of water, Ostojić set up workshops as a collective space to exchange on the often shrouded topic of menopause and to practise swimming exercises, later mapping these experiences onto drawings and textiles.

Works in the exhibition: Changed by Water (2024), series of twenty-four drawings on paper, mixed media, 29.7 × 42 cm each; Changed by Water (2024), menopausal swimming calendar, embroidery on cotton, 140 × 335 cm. Courtesy of the artist