Curated by Sally Ann McIntyre
27-minute excerpt
The Game takes its name from the attempts made by asylum-seekers to reach the EU via the overland border between Bosnia and Croatia. Located on the so-called Western Balkan migrant route—and only 10 kilometres from the border—Bihać has for the last 15 years been used as a point from which to attempt ‘the game’. Visible from the nearby monument on Garavice Hill is the local cemetery which contains a small, unkempt plot of graves of many who did not succeed—either drowning in the Una river after jumping off the trainline which snakes along beside it, encountering bears or unexploded land mines from the 90’s wars, or as a result of injuries sustained by the brutal push-backs administered by the Croatian border police. The monument, symbolising twelve weeping mothers looking out over their fallen children from the National War of Liberation (WWII), now takes on new meaning.
Additionally, the title references the local football stadium which at the height of the migrant crisis was used as a makeshift refuge for asylum-seekers. In contrast to the rising authoritarianism in Europe at present which manifests as increasingly harsh immigration policies, Bihać was the first region liberated from Nazi-allied forces in WWII. It was here that the founding principles of Yugoslavia, including its anti-colonial engagement with the global south were first fleshed out, guided by the Partisan call-to-arms ‘Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu’ (Death to fascism, freedom to the people).
The composition unfolds over nine thematic chapters (five of which feature in this excerpt), each focusing on one part of the constellational matrix of sites related to Garavice. The composition progresses through abandoned spaces used as makeshift asylum-seeker accommodation, game day at the local football stadium, the fields around Garavice, a border crossing, and archives related to the site, concluding at the point at which a group of asylum-seekers prepare to make a covert, nighttime border crossing. Interludes highlight the geological settings of these locations, while at other points field notes appear in the form of voice over, ruminating on the listening process.
The Game was first exhibited as a 60-minute, 22-channel sound installation incorporating geological and found objects activated by exciters and reclaimed speaker components, in Naarm/Melbourne in February 2026.
