Temporary Body @ Božena Končić Badurina. 2006

- BADURINA Božena Končić, Temporary Body, 2006, performance Gliptoteka, Zagreb, photo: Željko Badurina.

At the opening of a sculpture triennial, Božena Končić Badurina’s performance functioned as a mimicry of the exhibition environment: entirely wrapped in aluminium foil, the artist sat on a pedestal, resembling a sculpture. In the context of a survey of contemporay readings of sculpture, the aluminium seated figure, which recalls the work of Croatian sculptor Ivan Kožarić, seemed like an intruder from styles of the past, creating discomfort in the field of audience expectations. A strong discomforting effect was similarly produced by the artist’s play between living and dead matter, which only the most suspecting visitors noticed, engaging in the space of communication with the artist’s hidden body. Beneath a calm and immobile surface of the ‘sculpture’, the body of the artist was performing a most demanding endurance ritual: trapped beneath the aluminium foil, sweating, resisting the heat and the desire to get out.