Ana Cvorovic: Borders Unfold

'Borders Unfold' presents the latest expression of Ana Cvorovic's ongoing enquiry on migration and displacement. As part of her Arts Council England funded project with the same title, 'Borders Unfold' is the culmination of a yearlong exploration of the complex psychological effects of geographic dislocation, particularly within communities from former Yugoslavia displaced during the civil war of the nineties.

Aiming to create a link between her own experience of displacement and that of others, the artist pursued a research residency in Utica, New York, the city with the largest rate of refugees per capita in the US, in the summer 2018. Having worked with the local community on interviews, workshops and sound recordings, now she returns to sculpture to unfold her own interpretation of this investigation.

The exhibition will feature a new body of work comprised of sculptural works, site-specific installations and a surround soundscape, inviting visitors to experience the gallery space as an immersive journey. Elements such as disability bars, oil paintings on tarpaulin, and everyday items encapsulated in resin, present some of Cvorovic's recurring motifs as well as new sculptural processes initiated specifically for this project.

As with previous works, the vulnerability of childhood is evoked in visceral, sensorial ways.

Whilst in 'Discharged (2014)' we saw child mattresses protruded by a metal frame, ‘Borders Unfold’ introduces a series of aquatic references, like child swimming suits and colourful fishing paraphernalia, highlighting water as a host for varied psychological states. Often with a sense of trauma, the visitor is faced with contrasting hints to flow and stagnation, mobility and immobility, as if trying to bring back a time in life that was interrupted.

Exploring the intersections between sculpture and sound for the second time, after her site-specific work 'Closeness (2016)' at Koppel Project, Cvorovic brings to Pi Artworks London manipulated sound recordings from her time in Utica, further infusing this multi-layered intervention with a sense of fragmented memory and landscape.

With this work Ana Cvorovic brings forward, through her diverse approaches to sculpture, both personal and collective perspectives of psychogeography and contemporary migrant identity. This presentation has the ambition to engage the audience in new critical, sensorial, and formal ways towards this timely theme.

Borders Unfold will run until 26 October 2019. Ana Čvorović will be in conversation with London-based art critic, writer Sacha Craddock at 4 pm on the opening day, Saturday 28 September.

https://www.piartworks.com/exhibitions/148-ana-cvorovic-borders-unfold/…