Since the inception of Western medicine, women’s bodies have been mistreated and objectified, shaped more by myths and gender biases than by facts. This dates back to Hippocrates, who coined the term “hysteria,” derived from the Greek word hustera (ὑστέρα), meaning womb. Hysteria, or the “wandering uterus” syndrome, was believed to cause emotional volatility and “strange behavior” in women who were not pregnant, suggesting that avoiding their “biological duty” of childbearing would make their bodies rebel.[1] The focus on reproduction over pleasure has persisted, with the female clitoris only being comprehensively mapped two decades ago. The three artists featured in this exhibition, who won the Young Visual Artist Award in their countries—Alma Gačanin (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Glorija Lizde (Croatia), and Agrina Vllasaliu (Kosovo)—explore how patriarchal capitalism and the medical-industrial complex have categorized female bodies and the reproductive system, deeming some bodies and organs as more functional and valuable than others. 

Alma Gačanin (b. 1988, Sarajevo) presents a selection of older and newer works, including watercolor paintings from her Workout series and a brand new mixed media piece titled Nuclear (2024). The Workout series features her alter ego, Djevina, whose grotesque depictions challenge beauty standards and capitalist demands on the female body. Through her exaggerated depictions of legs with claws, hair, and strong quadriceps, Gačanin renders a threatening character to her protagonists. In Nuclear, she reflects on a recent surgery, using a latex canvas on which she painted ultrasound images of her uterus, shaped into a trefoil. By introducing a small military unit of Djevinas, Gačanin refers to the power of the uterus but also the destructive potential it has for the female body. 

Glorija Lizde (b. 1991, Croatia) offers a new photographic series titled Repetitions, rehearsals, stagings (2024), exploring historical practices at the Salpêtrière hospital in the late 19th century. There, hundreds of women were photographed as part of staged medical spectacles, with doctors inducing symptoms of hysteria. Lizde reenacts these scenes, embodying both photographer and subject. Her use of long exposure and composite imagery introduces movement and temporality, questioning the role of photography in perpetuating institutional abuse and constructing images of mental illness. Her work invites reflection on the lasting impact of these representations on contemporary understandings of mental health and the female experience.

Agrina Vllasaliu (b. 1990, Pristina; lives in Berlin) explores the commodification of female sexuality in her work VirginCare 2.0 (2021). The piece features a water basin filled with artificial hymens modeled after existing market products [2], highlighting how market capitalism offers solutions for “restoring” virginity—a prized attribute still scrutinized in different parts of Kosovo as well as the diaspora community of Kosovo-Albanians. Vllasaliu’s version of artificial hymens temporarily gives material form to patriarchal violence against female bodies. The installation literally deconstructs the myth of the hymen: at first glance, it is not clear what is happening in the basin. It seems as if new artificial hymens are being grown in it. But in fact, the hymens dissolve at a temperature of 36.5° Celsius – the average human body temperature – over a period of about a week. This work reveals the exploitation and power dynamics imposed on women’s bodies, stemming from cultural and societal expectations centered on purity and subjugation. 

Together, the works in Hustera explore the historical and ongoing objectification and control of female bodies based on cultural norms, and the operating processes of the medical-industrial complex. While in medieval Greek and Roman medical theory it was believed that women have two “mouths”—one for speech and one for sexual activity—with societal decorum dictating that both should remain closed, silent, and untouched [3], all three artists offer strategies for overcoming this systemic silencing and imposed norms, either through erasure, rewriting, or reimagining.

[1] Ally Greenhalgh, “Medicine and Misogyny: The Misdiagnosis of Women”, Confluence, December 6, 2022.
[2] www.virginia-care.de
[3] Anne Carson, Glass Irony and Good (New York: New Directions Books, 1992), 131-132.

Partner: Embassy of the Republic of Kosovo in Budapest, Hungary

Opening remarks by Delfin Pllana, Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo in Hungary

Curator: Veronika Molnár

Curatorial Assistant: Ágnes Keszegh

Graphic designer: Veroni Bátfai

Photos by Barnabás Neogrády-Kiss