to give what is due, 2026
Installation at
Montserrat College of Art's 301 FRAME Gallery
February 9, 2026—March 20, 2026
Nemesis cursed Narcissus for his vanity, causing him to die staring at his own reflection. Nemesis is a distributor of fortune and retribution, neither good nor bad—literally meaning “to give what is due.”
to give what is due by Ena Kantardžić is an experiential exhibition at Montserrat College of Art’s FRAME 301 Gallery. The show features UAV (unmanned aircraft vehicle) documentary footage of Kantardžić’s on-going land work echo 2 as 2-channel laser projection, as well as new material created from harvested narcissi (daffodils).
Without a consistently coherent horizon, to give what is due disorients viewers in two consequential flights, following the vision of the drone via the lasers of the projector. The physical remnants of the satellite site line the architecture of the gallery, reflecting sunlight while framing the boundaries of the videos. Accentuated by varying degrees of visibility, to give what is due considers perceptibility across circumstantial conditions: contrasting void with life, stability with line, and retribution to sympathy.
echo 2 is a performative installation in the Green Mountains. Dug by hand, Kantardžić planted 1000 narcissus bulbs in a trench 144ft/44m long, moving thousands of pounds/kilos of earth. Inspired by Richard Long’s 1967 sculpture Line Made by Walking, Kantardžić is interested in human impact on the land, with land understood as the root of conflict. Informed by their family’s refuge to the United States due to the Yugoslav Wars, the artist reappropriates themes and materials of contemporary warfare.
