Arijana Lekić-Fridrih: All Art is a Political Statement introduces audiences to the work of Croatian artist Arijana Lekić-Fridrih and, in particular, to her Silent Mass, a performance resisting the “Be Manly” movement, a series of mass prayer events held in Croatian public squares by a battalion of men who pray for the abolition of women’s rights, for women’s “chastity,” and for men’s “masculine authority.” All Art is a Political Statement links the erosion of women’s rights across intercontinental boundaries and offers Lekić-Fridrih’s multimedia art as a guide for activism against retrograde restrictions on the freedom of women.

Arijana Lekić-Fridrih: Svaka umjetnost je politička izjava upoznaje publiku s radom hrvatske umjetnice Arijane Lekić-Fridrih, a posebno s njezinom Tihom misom, performansom otpora pokretu “Budi muško”, nizu masovnih molitvenih događanja koje na hrvatskim javnim trgovima održava bataljun muškaraca moleći za ukidanje ženskih prava, za žensku “čednost”, a za muškarce “muški autoritet”. Svaka umjetnost je politička izjava spaja eroziju ženskih prava preko interkontinentalnih granica i nudi multimedijsku umjetnost Lekić-Fridrih kao vodič za aktivizam protiv nazadnih ograničenja slobode žena.

Rebekah Modrak is an artist and writer analyzing consumer culture and representation from unusual perspectives.  She is co-editor of Radical Humility: Essays on Ordinary Acts in which twenty people (a philosopher, a psychologist, a cook, a journalist, a librarian, a marketing scholar, a lawyer ...) consider humility as a countermeasure to Trump's golden escalator. She's co-editor of Trouble in Censorville: The Far Right's Assault on Public Education and the Teachers Who Are Fighting Back.  Alison Bechdel writes, of Trouble in Censorville, "Their powerful testimony is enraging—these vicious attacks are not what they signed up for. But it’s also profoundly uplifting, a vision of courage, resistance, and grace under fire that is a model for us all in these dark times."  Modrak has also written articles for publications such as New Art Examiner, Media-N, The Conversation, Afterimage, Ms. Magazine, and Infinite Mile. She is Professor in the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. She lives in Ann Arbor where runs a local food truck series.