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.
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Instagram About© Zvonimir Ferin
Artist Statement
A long-standing interest in my work is tracing the harmful power dynamics encoded onto marginalised bodies by juxtapositioning tradition and digital systems of control. My practice is rooted in performance, however it descends beyond the physical into multimedia.
Inspired by the lived experience of oppressive traditional systems in the Balkans, 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 the imperceptible violence of digital reality.
Alternating between absurdism, vulnerability, spectacle and harshness, my work materialises through interactive scenarios (multimedia installations, videos) and staged experiences; using my training in social design as a research methodology.
In order to achieve my artistic vision I often collaborate with experts in choreography, somatics, creative coding, music production among others.
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
- MA in Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven (NL)
2014-2019
- BA Industrial Design, School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb (CRO)
Awards & Recognitions
2022
- The best thesis project on topic of female and gender issues, Center for Female Studies Zagreb (CRO)
2022
- Body Hub as a best project on Social Innovation, Zagreb Design Week (CRO)
2016
- Rector’s Award for Socially Meaningful Work, University of Zagreb (CRO)
Selected Shows & Performances
2026
- A Girl, a Lamb and a Sacrifice, Amsterdam Art Week, ISO (NL)
- Body as a Norm, Museo Lapidarium (CRO)
- Untitled, KC Belgrade (RS)
2025
- 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)
2024
- 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)
2023
- A girl, a Wedding and a Sacrifice, RIB Gallery, Rotterdam (NL)
- Realities in Transition, Kontejner.org, Contemporary Art Museum, Zagreb (CRO)
2022
- 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
- Hysterical, La Clinica, Oaxaca (MX)
2025
- A Kill Is Only a Dinner, and Dinner Is Not the Entire World, Gallery GMK, Zagreb (HR)
2024
- Xsenofolk, Gallery Karas, Zagreb (CRO)
2024
- Why wouldn’t you date me?, Kontejner.org, Zagreb (CRO)
2023
- A girl, a Wedding and a Sacrifice, RIB Gallery, Rotterdam (NL)
2022
- COLLO-redancing tradition, Gallery Prostor, Culture Hub Croatia, Split (CRO)
Residencies & Programs
2026
- Artist residency, La Clinica, Oaxaca (MX)
2024
- Somatic knowledge and new techno-spatial scopes by Ofri Cnaani, Salzburg Summer Academy (AT)
2024
- Cyberwitches and Feminist Technologies, Institute for Postnatural Studies, Seminar Series (ES)
2022
- Kamen Artist Residency, Orah (BA)
2022
- CODE 2022, Impakt festival (NL)
Selected Press
2025
- Bodies 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
2024
- Exploring the evolution and impact of the traditional Croatian dance, Easterndaze, Tiiu Meiner
2023
- 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
2021
- 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
- Kunstenaar Start, Mondriaan Fonds
2024
- Fee for Artist Solo Show, 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
2023
- CBK Art Office Rotterdam, R&D subsidy
- Kontejner.org, Production and presentation of the work
Education & Professional Experience
2026
- Glossary 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).
2025
- Assistant tutor: Embodied Futures: Political Imagination for Shared Spaces by Ofri Cnnani, Salzburg Summer Academy (AT)
- Artist Workshop Leader: My Feed Brings All the Curators to My DMs, Culture Hub, Split (CRO)
- Art & Design Workshop; TransmutationMatter with Rebecca Schedler, Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design, Prague (CZ)
2024
- 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)
2023
- Artist Workshop: Minting Yourself! together with Ginevra Petrozzi and Nikola Scheibe, Contemporary Art Museum, Zagreb (CRO)
2022
- 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 who inspire and support me: Rebecca Schdler, Eva Garibaldi, Ginevra Petrozzi, Lola Gonzales, Harry Castle, Ofri Cnnani (who ispired this list from Vlatka Horvat, ), Maja Šimišić, Katarina Juričić, Basse Stittgen, Aitan Ebrahimoff, Karla Žliman, Matilde Patuelli, Gaia D’Argo, Benedetta Pompili , Marko Milas