Once Refused a Visa, Now Celebrated: Vladimir Lalić’s Migrant Public Sculpture Opens in Lewisham
Manor House Gardens, London – unveiled 2 November 2025
Serbian artist Vladimir Lalić, once denied a UK tourist visa, has returned under a Global Talent Visa to unveil a sculpture about movement and belonging in one of the most diverse boroughs — Lewisham in South East London. To Move, is to Bloom now rises from the lake in Manor House Gardens — fifteen imagined species rise delicately on stainless-steel poles, their hand-painted bodies swaying with wind and light.
The idea for To Move, is to Bloom comes from the blossoming of the Tisza River in northern Serbia, when millions of mayflies rise, dance and vanish within a day. Lalić reimagines that brief life as persistence made visible: painted forms that bend but refuse to snap. A faint metallic hum — tones the artist recorded by striking the rods — carried over the water.
From the footbridge the sculpture looks weightless, but its geometry is precise: each rod sways with the breeze yet keeps its balance. Installing it took a crane, a full day, and the quiet satisfaction of seeing the lake cleared of branches, its surface newly reflective.
Commissioned under Echoes of Migration, produced by Art Voyage Biennial CIC and supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England, Lewisham Council, and the Friends of Manor House Gardens, the work could hardly be better placed. Nearly a third of Lewisham residents are first- or second-generation migrants, and almost half trace their heritage beyond Britain.
Public opinion surfaced immediately. “I like it!” announced a toddler, then upgraded to “I love it.” A woman with a lapdog offered dissent: “Money could have been spent better.” Moments later, a kingfisher settled on one of the rods. A breeze caught the sculpture and the steel swayed, making the bird appear to nod in approval at the new addition to his lakeside home in London — before flashing away into the trees.
“As a migrant, it’s meaningful to leave a permanent mark in London – a city built on movement and change, where conversations about belonging still need space to grow,” Lalić adds. “It’s beautiful to see how nature responds too — birds have already begun perching on the sculpture’s forms, turning it into part of their own landscape.”
Lalić, 42, has spent his life between borders. Born in Belgrade, he trained in printmaking and voice, performing from Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to the UN headquarters in New York. He joined the Association of Serbian Artists in 2009, has held 38 solo exhibitions and more than 80 group shows worldwide, and won the Paul-Louis Weiller Prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 2024 he completed an MFA at Goldsmiths, a London art school that specialises in turning private journeys into public statements.
A migrant sculpture by a once-rejected migrant feels timely, if not symbolic. When the national conversation drifts toward walls and borders, To Move, is to Bloom reminds us that motion is not automatically a threat to stability — it can be the very force that lets new forms take root, helps everything stay upright and balanced.
Elena Leo is the Arts & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
