Teodora Tošić’s State of Mind: Spatial Politics and the Body
- Savina Ražnatović
- Mar 19
- 4 min read
A body slumps into a skeletal chair, spilling over its edges. Another folds into a cube, limbs pressed inward, retreating from the outside world. A third lies on a bed—resting, waiting, dissolving. In State of Mind, Teodora Tošić constructs a series of psychological portraits through her unique approach to spatial negotiation—perhaps even an implicit tension between body and structure. These fabric bodies, stripped of anatomical detail and character, seem to struggle with their surroundings, caught in a state of unresolved tension.
According to Tošić, her work explores the relationship between mental states and physical form:
Each piece maps a particular mental state onto form. The bed, with its pale blue figure lying horizontally, embodies the contradiction of repose and contemplation. The color soothes, yet the form remains stiff—more a symbolic stand-in for rest than an actual state of ease. The chair-bound figure, in contrast, embodies discomfort and a desire for freedom; its upper body remains unrestricted, while the weight concentrated in its legs creates a sense of heaviness, making movement impossible. Even the chair itself resists containment, seemingly yearning for release just as much as the figure seated in it. Meanwhile, the cube encloses a curled-up body, forming a safe space—a refuge from everything. While it offers an escape from reality, that illusion remains intact, allowing it to feel secure despite its inherent detachment. There is no neutral position here; each form carries an emotional charge, a subtle but distinct pressure.
The artist describes these figures as symbolic representations of psychological states, shaped by the objects that contain them. The installation unfolds as a tense dialogue between human softness and rigid interior structures. The metal frames of chairs, beds, tables, and lamps exist as outlines, suggesting function without fully asserting it, while the fabric figures adapt, conform, or strain against them. By stripping furniture to its simplest lines, she renders domestic space almost hypothetical, its function implied rather than fully present. The bed becomes a site of both rest and overthinking, the chair embodies discomfort, the cube offers withdrawal. 'The figures,' the artist explains, 'are positioned to emphasize the psychological states they represent.' These forms are not mere abstractions but direct translations of bodily experience into space, caught between presence and dissolution.
For Merleau-Ponty, the body does not merely exist in space; rather, it perceives, constructs, and is constructed by it. In State of Mind, this agency is suspended. The figures do not move; they yield, collapse, conform. Neither fully autonomous nor entirely inert, they hover between physical form and psychological imprint. Does space accommodate the body, or does it absorb it, leaving only residue?
The work resists overt metaphor yet invites projection. The facelessness of these figures makes them adaptable not just to their environments but to the viewer’s own psychological terrain. Are they exhausted, meditative, numb? The answer shifts depending on where one stands. Unlike traditional sculpture, which asserts the body in space, State of Mind turns the question around: how does space impose itself on the body? The work moves beyond representation, engaging with architectural ethics, spatial constraints, and the politics of built environments.
This tension is particularly resonant in regions like Montenegro, where rapid urbanization and ethically compromised construction have reshaped the built environment, often at the expense of its inhabitants. Though State of Mind does not directly reference these realities, its interrogation of space as a force that confines, absorbs, and shapes the body feels inseparable from its context. If architecture dictates corporeal experience, what remains of bodily autonomy? Here, space is not a passive backdrop but an active force.
These forms, slightly smaller than life-size, are based on the artist’s own body. However, they function more as traces of presence and movement, devoid of personal identity. They capture ghostly impressions and residual energies of bodies that once sat, waited, or collapsed, memorializing an action rather than performing it. They exist where routine gives way to something more brittle and unpredictable, at the intersection of habit and self-awareness.
In an era where the body is constantly scrutinized, monitored, and defined by external structures—whether institutional, technological, or social—State of Mind asks how much autonomy remains. These figures, caught between adaptation and dissolution, articulate the quiet violence of spaces that shape us without our consent. Their facelessness is not just an absence of identity but a reflection of its instability. How much of the self is retained when the body conforms too perfectly to its surroundings? When does adaptation become disappearance?
In State of Mind, bodies are not simply passive occupants of space; rather, they are shaped by it, eroded by it, absorbed into it. The question is not just whether they fit, but whether they can ever escape. If structure dictates form, then at what point does support become absorption? If the body must always adapt, what remains of its autonomy?
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Teodora Tošić (b. 1998, Cetinje) is a Montenegrin sculptor currently pursuing her master's degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje, where she also completed her undergraduate studies in sculpture. As part of her academic journey, she participated in the Erasmus program, spending a semester at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (Belas-Artes ULisboa) and later at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (VŠVU) in Bratislava. Her artistic practice is rooted in sculpture, with a multidisciplinary approach that extends into photography and conceptual installations. She has exhibited in numerous group shows, including the Premio Internazionale di Scultura Edgardo Manucci (2022, Arcevia), No Concept Exhibition (2023, Nikšić), and multiple annual exhibitions at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje. She also presented her work at the Festival of Animated Film and Illustration (RE)ANIMACIJA and participated in workshops such as Fluid Design Forum and architectural competitions exploring themes of minimalism. Teodora lives in Podgorica and Cetinje, where she continues to develop her artistic practice through academic research, experimentation, and international collaborations.
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