Ira is a Sydney-based, Zagreb-born curator, writer, podcaster, dramaturg, and interdisciplinary artist working across dance, poetry, video art, sound collages, and conversation. With artist Elia Bosshard she is a co-author of SPACE BODY HABIT, published through Frontyard (2021).

In 2016 she was a Director of profit-for-purpose gallery Folonomo (Surry Hills, Sydney), and has since freelanced as a curator in Australia and Europe. Her curatorial interests are broad but tend to gravitate towards conceptual art practices. As a dancer she is interested in and inspired by somaesthetics; the way our bodies navigate and experience exhibition spaces. In 2018 she initiated SPAJALICA, an annual pairing of artists from ex-YU countries.

Ira holds BA in Art History and MA in Journalism, produces and presents a fortnightly show on art and environmentalism ‘Arts Monday: Sympoiesis’ on Sydney’s Eastside Radio 89.7FM, and hosts her own podcast channel featuring interviews with international artists. In 2019, she was a co-curator and podcast producer of Dance Cinema. As a writer, Ira writes texts for exhibition catalogues, contributes to ADSR zine, and writes scholarly essays. Her texts on dance have appeared in Delving into Dance, Dance Art Journal, and Kulturpunkt. Her contribution to SENT was published through POST.

Her own artistic practice spans across dance, poetry, video-art, sound collage, and collaborations. The projects tend to be conceptual investigations of space and time, with ‘body’ at the centre of enquiry. She has exhibited and performed in Europe and Australia, including World Square (Sydney) as part of Now You Hear Her; KNAP Centre (Zagreb) as part of 18. Festival Prvih; and Media Architecture Biennale (Netherlands) as part of Back to the Future of Public Space project. As a performer, she is a part of Lux Eterna’s ‘8th Day’ hybrid dance multi-channel video project awarded 2022 March Dance Keir Foundation 'Start-up Commission', and has performed as part of Temporary Ecosystems, a site-specific action curated by Kate Sherman for the 2022 Inner West Fest.

As a contemporary dancer, for fifteen years Ira was a member of Zagreb Youth Theatre (Croatia) performing extensively throughout the country and in Canada. Since moving to Australia, she has trained in BodyWeather with Tess de Quincy and Victoria Hunt, and is currently facilitating classes in ‘Attentive Movement and Multi-sensory Listening’.

Professionally, Ira worked as events producer and communications manager. From 2008-2013 at the Sydney Film School, where she amongst other directed a number of short film festivals (held at Chauvel Cinema). From 2013-2018, at Sydney Ideas (University of Sydney) where she helped produce and promote over 400 public lectures and panel discussions. In 2021, she was a Conference Project Manager for AAANZ: Impact, organised through The Power Institute.

See Ira’s art projects HERE.
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Ben is a filmmaker and a video artist whose writings on cinema have been published worldwide in both French and English. As a film writer/director he has won major international awards, including the Grand Prix at the Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Festival in Tokyo, Japan for his short film "The Kitchen" (2003) and the Grand Prix at the One Take Film Festival in Zagreb, Croatia for his short film "Ascension" (2004). His feature film "Penelope" (2009) screened in National Competition at the 56th Pula Film Festival and won a Van Gogh Award for Best Fantasy Film at the Amsterdam Film Festival. In 2015, Ferris was the curator of the Sydney Cinémathèque. In 2016 he completed his critically-acclaimed docu-drama, ‘57 Lawson’. In 2018 he was selected for the Eurimages Lab Project Award at the 53rd Karlovy Vary Film Festival for his film In(di)visible. Since 2019, he is a Board Member of Documentary Australia Foundation.

See Ben’s projects HERE.
Ben’s VIMEO.
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