Dora Budor’s anti-urine deflectors make a splash in Nottingham

The Croatian artist Dora Budor has transformed Nottingham Contemporary, UK, (until 5 May) with a series of newly commissioned works that “look to the built environment and the various forms of psychosocial control induced by it”, according to a gallery blurb. In other words, Budor tries to work out how we interact with architectural spaces and contexts. According to the Venice Biennale 2022 guide: “Budor trained as an architect in her native city of Zagreb, yet in her immersive artworks she uses the language of ‘minor’ architecture: rather than making buildings, she selectively takes them apart.”The Nottingham show is full of beguiling objects and interventions reflecting her thesis that “hostile architecture”—bars on benches so people can’t sleep on them, for instance—is becoming more pervasive (Thomas Heatherwick’s Little Island park in New York plays a prominent role here, featuring in a video installation).Meanwhile, “one example of hostile architecture that Dora became very interested in is anti-urine deflectors [entitled A.U.D. (I-IV0), 2023],” says an education gallery pack. “These were made by Victorian people and put on important or historic buildings to stop people from weeing on them. The devices meant that if somebody did wee on them, the liquid would splash back at them” (indeed, there are some Victorian anti-urine deflectors left in Fleet Street in London). Budor also (rather cleverly) made the urine pieces from shredded cardboard taken from boxes thrown out by bars and restaurants in Nottingham which may well have been peed on.