I am a Croatian-born artist based in Amsterdam. My practice is rooted in performance and extends into multimedia installations, video, and staged experiences. Drawing on lived experiences of Balkan traditions and the tension between Eastern and Western cultural frameworks, I use the body as a site where visible and imperceptible forms of violence and desire converge.
Work
About
Email
Me
Instagram About© Zvonimir FerinArtist Statement
A long-standing interest in my work is tracing the harmful power dynamics encoded onto marginalised bodies by juxtapositioning traditional and digital systems of control. My practice is rooted in performance, however it expands beyond the physical into multimedia. Inspired by the lived experience of oppressive traditional systems in Balkan, I am committed to understand how forced normativity present in folk forms evolves and morphs in order to ensure its existence within digital systems. Torn between Western and Eastern cultural influence, I use my body as a vessel between visibly violent gestures of tradition and imperceptible violence of digital.
I use my training in Social Design to build a methodological approach to the topic of my research. In this process it is important for me to be inspired by my personal experience but also to connect it to the community experiencing the same socio-political struggles. Not standing behind the idea of a solitude genius, it is important to me to connect with communities in my process, collaborate with experts from different disciplines and build bridges of knowledge exchange. Within my work I often collaborate with choreographers, somatic specialists, creative coders, music producers among others. Shifting between absurdism, vulnerability, spectacle and roughness, my work materialises through live performances, multimedia installations, moving images and performative objects.
The driving force in my work comes from the belief that digital systems of control are often reconfigurations of existing traditional forms assimilating to the new context and the key to unlock this connection is by tracing the symptoms of power coded onto bodies. Thereby, through my body and identity I aim to demystify the complexities of power structures and rebalance the power dynamic by displacing them in absurdist scenarios.
Ines Borovac, 2025
CV
Education
2019-2021
2014-2019
MA in Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven (NL)
BA in Industrial Design, School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb (CRO)
Awards & Recognitions
2022
2022
2016
The best thesis project on topic of female and gender issues, Center for Female Studies Zagreb (CRO)
Body Hub as a best project on Social Innovation, Zagreb Design Week (CRO)
Rector’s Award for Socially Meaningful Work, University of Zagreb (CRO)
Selected Shows & Performances
2026
2026
2026
2025
2025
2025
2025
2024
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
A Girl, a Lamb and a Sacrifice, Amsterdam Art Week, ISO (NL)
Body as a Norm, Museo Lapidarium (CRO)
Untitled, KC Belgrade (RS)
BRUTUS: Wild Summer of Art, Rotterdam (NL)
Peromative activation of a show Veenweide Atelier, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden (NL)
This Transition Will Never End!; Before the Cock Crows, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (FR)
Before the Cock Crows, Het Archief, Rotterdam (NL)
Participating: Croatian Pavillion, By the Means of Hands by Vlatka Horvat, Venice Biennale (IT)
Open Studios, Summer Academy Salzburg (AT)
Participating: Listen to It Like You Haven’t Been Born Yet, Tell It as If You Are Still in the Surrogate Womb by Ofri Cnaani, Museum der Moderne Salzburg(AT)
Live performance COLLO-redancing tradition, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (NL)
A girl, a Wedding and a Sacrifice, RIB Gallery, Rotterdam (NL)
Realities in Transition, Kontejner.org, Contemporary Art Museum, Zagreb (CRO)
Antisalon, Galerija Siva, Zagreb (CRO)
Ars Electronica, CODE 2022, Linz (AT)
Secrets to Sell Your Designer Services, Drop City, Milano (IT)
Selected Solo Shows
2026
2025
2025
2024
2024
2023
2022Hysterical, La Clinica, Oaxaca (MX)
A Kill Is Only a Dinner, and Dinner Is Not the Entire World, Gallery GMK, Zagreb (HR)
Why wouldn’t you date me?, Kontejner.org, Zagreb (CRO)
Xsenofolk, Gallery Karas, Zagreb (CRO)
Why wouldn’t you date me?, Garage Rotterdam, Rotterdam (NL)
A girl, a Wedding and a Sacrifice, RIB Gallery, Rotterdam (NL)
COLLO-redancing tradition, Gallery Prostor, Culture Hub Croatia, Split (CRO)
Residencies & Programs
2026
2024
2024
2022
2022Artist residency, La Clinica, Oaxaca (MX)
Somatic knowledge and new techno-spatial scopes by Ofri Cnaani, Salzburg Summer Academy (AT)
Cyberwitches and Feminist Technologies, Institute for Postnatural Studies, Seminar Series (ES)
Kamen Artist Residency, Orah (BA)
CODE 2022, Impakt festival (NL)
Selected Press
2025
2025
2024
2023
2023
2023
2023
2021
2021
2021
2021Bodies and their extensions in the centre of design research; An Interview with Ines Borovac and Rebecca Schedler, Agáta Hošnová, online.umprum.cz
Once, our father chose our marital partner for us, but today they are chosen for us by – computer algorithms, Večernji List, Tia Špero
Exploring the evolution and impact of the traditional Croatian dance, Easterndaze, Tiiu Meiner
At the intersection of design, performance and dance, Vizkultura.hr
Ines Borovac: Performative design, Mrako Golub, dizajn.hr
Ines Borovac held a performance ‘Secrets of selling your design services’, tportal.hr
Famous Artist makes an unusual performance in Zagreb, L.G. Jutarnjilist.hr
Designing stories: What the folk?!, Nadine Botha, DAE Wiki
Feminisim Forgives by Ines Borovac; Mis(s)placed Women?, Tanja Ostojić
Death to algorithms long live the witches!, Jeroen Junte, DDW.nl
The Princess on the Waste Mountain - Design Academy Graduation Show, Domeniek Ruyters, Metropolism.com
Grants
2025
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023Kunstenaar Start, Mondriaan Fonds
Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media
ISBK ERSTE Stiftung, Full Residency Scholarship for Emerging Artists from Easter Europe
Cultuur Fonds, Equipment funding for Female Artists in Visual art
CBK Art Office Rotterdam, Research and development grant
Kontejner.org, Production and presentation of the work
Education & Professional Experience
2026
2026
2025
2025
2025
2025
2024
2024
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
2022Glossary contribution - Lagging Gestures, Museums as Commons: A Vocabulary for Collective Counter-Intelligence, eds. Martina Griesser, Nora Sternfeld, Ofri Cnaani; glossary eds. Ofri Cnaani & Viviane Kubler. De Gruyter Verlag, Curating Exhibition Theory & Practice series (University of Applied Arts Vienna).
Foreword author, Professional Media Practices for Artists Toolkit., Lapland University of Applied Sciences (PMP Project).
Open-access publication developed collaboratively by national artist teams from seven European countries.
Borovac, I. Contactless Fuck. Chapter contribution, in The Contactless Condition,
eds. Ofri Cnaani & Or Tshuva. Open Humanities Press, Data Browser series.
Assistant tutor: Embodied Futures: Political Imagination for Shared Spaces by Ofri Cnnani, Salzburg Summer Academy (AT)
Artist Workshop: My Feed Brings All the Curators to My DMs, Culture Hub, Split (CRO)
Workshop TransmutationMatter with Rebecca Schedler, Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design, Prague (CZ)
Artist Talk: Feminism in XR, Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques, Marseille (FR)
Speculative Design Workshop: Eindhoven Underwater (one of the five mentors and co creators) MA Social Design, DAE (NL)
Artist Workshop: Minting Yourself! together with Ginevra Petrozzi and Nikola Scheibe, Contemporary Art Museum, Zagreb (CRO)
Artist Talk: Performance & Production, with Marten Baas, Ines Borovac, and Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas,
Elevator Radio, Milan (IT)
Lecture; Ines Borovac - Performance in Design, School of Design, University of Architecture, Zagreb (CRO)
Lecture; Ines Borovac Gender and Music in Performance, School of Design, University of Architecture, Zagreb (CRO)
Lecture; Ines Borovac - Body Hub, Performance Day, Design Academy Eindhoven (NL)
Guest Evaluator, MA Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven (NL)
People I work with and creatives which inspire and support me: Rebecca Schdler, Harry Castle, Eva Garibaldi, Ginevra Petrozzi, Lola Gonzales, Ofri Cnaani (who ispired this list by Vlatka Horvat, ), Maja Šimišić, Katarina Juričić, Basse Stittgen, Aitan Ebrahimoff, Karla Žliman, Matilde Patuelli, Gaia D’Argo, Benedetta Pompili