Ivana Mancic from Serbia

Sculptural installation:

"Outside of Memories, I Belong", 2020

Earthenware, terracotta clay, technique slab building, bisque firing, temperature 1000 degrees

Various dimensions, houses and heads 30X40X30 cm, female figure 80 cm

Artist Statement

My art practice addresses the issues of loss, memory and belonging that mark the unique historical chapter surrounding the Civil war in ex-Yugoslavia. I aim to contribute to contemporary art practices and dialogues by presenting a personal narrative in relation to my experience of search of identity and belonging through the immediate exposure to the complex circumstances of war and loss.

A personal individual testimony is in the core of my PhD research at NTU, UK. Using the personal narrative and autoethnography as research methods, I explore the movement of people and their displacement by examining the intersection between past and present events which affect the geographical area of the Balkan through the formation of borders, in a place where there once were none.

Sculptural pieces address the idea of fear and otherness (being both Croatian and Serbian thus belonging to both conflicted sides in Yugoslav war).

The sculptural installation "Outside of Memories, I Belong" 2020, consists of sculptural pieces in earthenware (heads) and terracotta clay (houses) approximate dimensions 30X40X30 cm and a female figure 80cm tall in earthenware clay.

Aside from these sculpted pieces, the installation includes a painted wooden chair a fireplace. The fireplace piece is dedicated to the displaced people of Yugoslavia and other war-torn parts of the world. Small clay figurines without hands and legs are integrated in the inside of the fireplace as a symbol of home. They governing idea is the feeling of helplessness as a consequence of being displaced.

The sculptural pieces address the idea of displacement but also of a place as non-place. They are based on personal memories of war and deal with complex issues such as justice and dignity which are often juxtaposed to the experience of war.