Nora Turato

Born in Zagreb and based in Amsterdam, Nora Turato (*1991) examines the ephemeral and versatile nature of language as well as our collective experience of the incessant current-day stream of words. Using text as her artistic source material, Turato collates and dissects the cacophonous barrage of information we find ourselves confronted with daily. Funneling appropriated words, fragments and quotes into performances, books, enamel panels, installations, and video works, the artist arrives at captivating incantations that harness the essence and the nonsense of what collectively moves us. Turato’s pools , a series of artist books, act as an anthology of found text compiled from a myriad of sources: journalism, advertisements, social media, conversations, literature, film and her own writing. She likens these collections to an “annual report, a hard copy of language exchanged,” reflections of her personal influences, and simultaneously seismographs of societal preoccupations. Phrases such as “[G]od is / the father / and god / didnt show / up” or “Things have gone haywire. My 12-year-old is calling my 14-year-old a boomer” and “[W]e regret / that you heard / about this,” found in the pages of pool 4 (2020), can be pinpointed to a particular moment in time, capturing the zeitgeist. These textual reservoirs serve as a basis for Turato’s larger body of work, not least her performances. Constructed as oft half-hour-long monologues, she meticulously choreographs and rehearses her performances utilizing voice – Turato has trained with a vocal and dialect coach for film actors since 2021 – and gesture as her medium. The artist inhabits different personas by employing facial expressions, her entire body, diction, rhythm, repetition and tone to convey both the seductive power of language as well as its frailty and fallibility.