To the Bone is a work that tells of the two-way relationship of two close people.

The point of departure for the production of this piece was the fact that after my operation and during convalescence, my mother looked after me. Her total submission to my daily needs drew a reaction and response from me to her persistence in it.  Apart from providing everyday help, she also photographed my moods and progress back to health.  In a direct way, she was involved in the beginning of the creation of a new work.

I expressed my thanks to my mother by the wish and the proposal that I should teach her to swim, which she accepted, showing total readiness to submit to my needs and to take part in the production of this work.

The work To the Bone is documented in a series of photographs by Boris Cvjetanović at the Mladost swimming pool in Zagreb, where I am teaching my mother to swim, and in a series of my mother’s photos of me taken while I was getting back to health.

Produced on locations in Pantin and at the Mladost swimming pool in Zagreb in the period from 2009 to 2010

Author: Amela Frankl

Photographs: Boris Cvjetanović, Mama

Translation: Graham McMaster

Support: The City Office for Education, Culture and Sport of the City of Zagreb, Labin Municipal Gallery of City of Labin