Ivor Borovečki (b. 1999) is a Croatian visual artist with a Dutch address. Fascinated by the ability of images to manipulate, his work aims at provoking emotional response, with titles and captions being used in a highly suggestive and associative manner. From video montages to screenshots stretched out of proportion, he is creating environments similar to those found in dreams, hazy and soft like long lost memories.
GRADUATION PROJECT
This work is a reflection on sacrifice and the obligation that comes with it. Told from the perspective of a fresh art graduate, its aim is not to be objective; on the contrary, the story is personal. Life is a battle against an opinion that is our own.
“In order to finance her grandson's education, an old lady is forced to sell a piece of land. When her nephew shows interest, she finds herself in a dilemma. She believes he’s planning to build a safe place for fulfilling his sexual fantasies. Torn between prejudice and her grandson's dependence, the grandmother decides to make a sacrifice for the family’s sake.”
A man in his early twenties is sitting at his desk, working on the script of his graduation film titled Family First. He was only 18 when he moved abroad to study at a renowned art academy. It took him a while to realise what a privilege this was. He always knew he would make it in life, no matter what. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t terrified of the future…
sound design by Luca van Grinsven
installation design by Jakov Habjan
IT ALL STARTED WITH A WISH
Thesis
Through personal stories and a collective history, Borovečki, curious by nature, explores the relationship between image and text. Focusing on manipulation of the viewer, a process often found in his artistic practice, he is thinking about ways in which the two concepts influence and empower each other, taking examples from different aspects of our culture, such as the history of photography, internet memes and artificial intelligence (AI). These ideas are organised into chapters, representing the past, present and future respectively. His thoughts appear in the form of short stories, interrupted only by a fictional monologue of his grandma, which served as the inspiration behind collecting all of this information in one place — this book.