Ana Prvacki

Ana Prvacki (b. 1976, Serbia) is a Serbian-Romanian-Singaporean artist whose work draws on daily practices and social research.

Career
Her art work displaying daily life are meant to transform the viewer's perception and experience of daily life and routine, providing solutions to our daily problems, worries, and fears. She explores social anxiety and the comedic potential of faux pas as well as the sociopolitical significance of welcoming the “other”.

Prvacki was recently an Artist-in-Residence at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) where she developed “Greeting Committee”, (2011), a participatory project about gestures of hospitality, civility, and etiquette.

She has shown in numerous international venues including: Bloomberg (NY), Lombard-Freid Projects (NY), Art in General (NY), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea (Turin), Biennale of Sydney,  Singapore Bienniale, Turin Triennale. Prvacki is based in Los Angeles and Singapore.

Greeting Committee (2011)
The Hammer Museum described the event as:
 * Greeting Committee, by Ana Prvacki, considers [civility and decency] by magnifying and zooming in on the protocols and customs of basic hospitality routines, such as greetings, salutations and welcoming. For her project at the Hammer, visitors are invited to observe or participate in interventions encouraging gestures of welcoming in the Wilshire lobby. ''

Using five instructors, eight actors, and seventeen student volunteers, Prvacki created a social and welcoming web of people within the entrance foyer. One gesture of welcoming demonstrated was the traditional Serbian offering of slatko ("sweet" in Serbian), a sweet strawberry preserve. This ritual was historically developed to ensure that the guest enters with "sweetness and welcome" (i.e. kind words) in his or her mouth. Slatko is also meant to "sweeten the tongue" to prevent gossip.

Wandering Band (2010)
Wandering band is an informal musical gathering led by the artist. Opera singers, wind and brass musicians are invited to come and do their daily practice of scales, tonal and finger exercises while strolling and wandering through the Highline Park. Unlike a marching band, Wandering Band is a loose and spontaneous musical stroll. It enables the musicians to practice their instruments while exploring the city and for the passers by on the street below, the performance sounds like a magical music school from above.

Venues: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, MA), The High Line (New York, NY)

Personal
Ana Prvacki is married to artist Sam Durant and they have a daughter, Divna.