Gloria Perović
EU Accession
This summer, in the window of our office, at Petrinjska Street 38, you can see the work “EU Accession” by artist Glorija Perović. It is a multi-layered work that deals with the themes of migration, identity, and borders – both physical and symbolic.
At the center of the work is a photograph, seemingly familial, intimate, and familiar, but revealed to depict unknown people – Austrian foreigners. By combining these images with iconography such as the word “east” or the Yugoslav flag, the artist subtly positions these figures as migrants – migrants who, paradoxically, at the time these photographs were taken, would most likely have been perceived with distrust or prejudice by those same Austrian “hosts”. Through this process, the work questions the invisible borders that divide “East” and “West” and the ways in which these borders are displaced, disappear, and redrawn. On a symbolic level, the work references the long and tedious narrative surrounding accession to the European Union – a process that, like a vending machine, is often marked by investment without a clear return or guarantee. The paper also raises the issue of migration flows from the former Yugoslavia to Austria, but also beyond, problematizing the fact that today, in 2025, it is easier for citizens of Croatia or Slovenia – EU member states since 2013 and 2004 – to cross the border with Austria than it is for their neighbors from Serbia or other countries that emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Ironically, these borders did not even exist until a few decades ago.
Perović’s work invites us to reflect on who has the right to move, who bears the stigma of “other”, and the necessity of empathy for those whose everyday lives are intertwined with migration, change of place and identity. In the context of Zagreb and its increasingly diverse demographic picture, the work poses an important reminder: that we do not view this diversity through the prism of fear or superiority, but through understanding, humility and tenderness.
The Q showcase project is co-financed by the City of Zagreb.
