Valentina Lacma(nović) is a French-Croatian performance artist and creator, working across experimental video, live art, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her practice extends into pedagogy, where she serves as a teacher, mentor, and research coach for students and emerging artists in contemporary circus and Performance Art.
Her work navigates the intersections of embodied knowledge, altered states, and the ritualisation of self-referential embodiment. Informed by scientific and anthropological research, Valentina engages with transcultural feminine practices, liminal thresholds, and trance-inducing movement (sustained whriling, extreme slowing down and other embodied time/space bending techniques). Fluent in five languages, Valentina holds a master's degree in philosophy/aesthetics from the University of Paris VIII and studied drama at the prestigious French National Academy of Dramatic Art (CNSAD) in Paris. In-depth research into ritual vs artistic perfrormance has given a new direction to her work as artistic director and performer since 2003, culminating in physically demanding performances and video artworks that have laid the foundations for her unique and recognisable signature. Her projects are grounded in rigorous research and fluidly integrate diverse artistic mediums, yet the body remains the central axis of expression—a living site through which all other forms are activated and contextualized. After a decades-long career as both an actress and dancer, since 2011 Valentina channels her embodied experience into conceptual, interdisciplinary work—embracing Performance Art as her primary medium and long-term artistic commitment. Her performances and video art have been presented in museums, galleries, festivals and on extraordinary locations such as Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, Museo Centro de Artes de Vanguardia La Neomudéjar in Madrid, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Emanuel Vigeland Museum in Oslo... Currently based in Amsterdam, her work centers on the development of transformative performative practices that critically engage with patriarchal structures, while addressing pressing themes such as climate change, the Anthropocene, and ecofeminism—positioning these concerns as integral to her academic practice at Fontys Academy of Arts - Acapa (Academy of CIrcus and Performance Art) in Tilburg since 2018.Lecturer and research mentor at ACAPA (Academy of Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg, NL)
Member of HDLU (Croatian Association of Fine Artists)
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