Aleksander Zain

Aleksander Zain (born in Belgrade/Serbia in 1992) is a dancer, choreographer and new media artist based in Berlin/Germany. He studied philosophy at the University of Belgrade and trained at MAPA in the Netherlands, the Puzzle program of Station – Service for Contemporary Dance, and Tanzfabrik in Berlin, alongside regular dance and athletic training. His artistic practice is grounded in the idea that the human body is stronger than we are taught to believe.

His solo dance work Body Confessions (2021) was performed in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pančevo), as well as in Romania and Germany. Documentation of the piece was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb/Croatia as part of Non-Aligned Movements, a survey on the history of dance in the Balkans. Since 2023, he has performed in the piece Before We Begin at Heartefact House, directed by Jug Đorđević and Tijana Grumić, as well as in various independent productions in Serbia.

Zain’s international career in endurance performance includes multiple appearances at the Venice International Performance Art Week and collaborations with the duo VestAndPage. He was a re-performer in Marina Abramović’s exhibition The Cleaner at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, where he later presented his own video work. In 2023, he completed his longest endurance performance, ACTA DISTANTIAE, a ten-day walk from the western to the eastern coast of Italy, within the framework of IMPORT/EXPORT, an international nomadic performance art platform he co-founded.

He is co-author of the dance podcast From Body to Body, exploring training, nutrition, health and working conditions for dancers in Serbia. Artist residencies include the Nelimarkka Museum in Finland (2022) and the Baska Theater in Romania, where he also led a masterclass for local artists.

As a trans man, he has been active within the LGBTIQ+ and TIGV communities in Serbia and the Balkans for many years, developing projects, workshops, and pieces dedicated to these communities. He is currently developing a new dance performance entitled TENSION.