Aftermath of a watercolor

A performance piece that transforms a whimsical watercolor into a literal invasion of Serbia. As part of the Panchvo Biennale on the outskirts of Belgrade, the artists were invited to create a canal from the river to the town center. Hand-dug locks would carry a small boat, bearing a "Ruler," to the town square and main exhibition space. The river, poisoned by an American bombing during the Bosnian War, carried the toxic remnants of a fertilizer plant target. No one expected the artists to make it far—yet when they did, the town responded. Local TV crews arrived, tensions rose, and the Biennial organizers grew uneasy. Eventually, an agreement was made.

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Though the work was never meant to trivialize war, its absurdity felt true to the chaos of conflict. The work embodied the tension between war's uncontrollable chaos and the imposed order of art, where every element is calculated yet subject to unpredictable forces. Just as in war, the boundaries between control and disorder blurred. Locals took sides, and characters emerged from the shadows to play their parts, revealing how art, like war, provokes both unity and division in its wake.

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