Croatia

Vlatka Horvat’s project for the Croatian Pavilion – By the Means at Hand – exists as both a dynamic, accumulating exhibition of artworks by a large group of international artists living “as foreigners”, reflecting on questions and urgencies of diasporic experience, and as a compelling, intimate, social, and performative exchange between them. The pavilion also doubles as Horvat’s temporary artist’s studio over the course of the biennial. Horvat has invited a large number of artists living in diaspora in different countries to engage with her in a series of reciprocal exchanges of artworks and other materials, all of which will be sent between Venice and other places by improvised means – via various friends, travellers, and strangers who will be enlisted as informal couriers for the project.
The project builds on the principles of solidarity, shared struggle, mutual support, and friendship – prerequisites for co-existing with others and key elements in the toolkit for those living “in foreign lands”. The project also points to a wide range of other, broader themes such as alternative logistics, spontaneous production of social relations, informal and gift economies, and the idea of trustfulness.