Language represents the labyrinth of the paths. You can come from “one” side and find your way around; you come from some other side to the same place and you can no longer orientate.

(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Much like language, art work is a labyrinth that can appear legible and comprehensive and the more we observe, our sensation is getting stronger. However, when we question about is it sufficient that we observe in order to adequately express ourselves about the given piece, that it when our opinion stands out. Wittgenstein himself, when speaking about language, speaks about the need to draw the line (about opinion). As he says: “in order to draw the line of the opinion, we must be able to reflect both sides of the frontier (we would have to be able to reflect what cannot be reflected). Hence, the only manner in which the frontier can be drawn will be in language only and what lies on the other side of it will, simply, be nonsense (Unsinn)“ . Possibilities to discuss the art work implies the question of its (in)expression, and thus with drawing certain lines. As Wittgenstein would say:” What can not be spoken about, must be quit about” . However, the only time one should be quit about the art work is when you have nothing to say. If you decide to speak, it is inevitable to be the part of the tension which creates during the search for the boarder of the meaning and finding the significance, which is immanent to the story of the art and artistic creation, and, also, to the life itself.

These are the question that artist Ivana Radovanović articulates through the very process of work, which is of crucial significance for her. Not less important is the genesis of that process, because behind every piece she makes lies a thorough reflection, even when she lets the intuition be her only guide, her creativity possess certain inner logic and type of natural order.

We can say that the natural happened in the cycle The Hollow Man. Life of this monumental sculptures made of earth, jute and straw, which were bound, during their creation, with the narrative of the song of T.S. Eliot which has the same title, lasted until the artist decided to burn them (Hollow Men – Burning Way) in one, almost ceremonial act by literally tearing them from herself. It would appear that the story was closed by this gesture, there is no way to go anymore. However, we must be cautious here because the closure does not mean completion. This is the act that represented the step forward towards the new path, that Ivana is taking in a calm and serene manner, because she is led by the purity of the inner urge for creation, energy she devotedly brings in her works of art by weaving them and sewing even the smallest seam on the new people. A question appears here: Who are those people and are they, in fact, people? We cannot tell but we feel that the bodies of this sculptures carry new and different energy that, actually, was made by the act of burning The Hallow Man. Hallow man was warning, these figures are calming on a certain manner. They are peacefully waiting to receive the layers and layers of meaning that are imprinting on them with every new observance in always different surrounding, afterwards they continue their journey, perhaps towards the new resurrection.

Inside of the labyrinth of meaning and significance, legibility and comprehensiveness, possibilities and impossibilities, artists found the new motion. Sometimes it is the active movement, sometimes stillness and listening, during which time she does not wish to know the answer to the question of how far will she come – she does not wish to know because she finds meaning in the devotion to her calling and perseverance on the path that is not easy, but, as such, inspires her to make her way without any delays – from the moment of reflection, choice of material, through the process of performance, realization itself, until the moment we get the privilege of feeling the special relation that is born between the artist and his work. Hence, together - in this case, artist, work of art and us- the audience, are active participants in the reflection over the understanding of the meaning of art, but also of life. With only this feedback, we can be sure that the edge of nonsense is far away from us.