Damir Avdagić at Kuma International

April 10 2021 at 18h CET on Zoom

You missed the talk? Watch it on our YouTube channel!

Kuma International is excited to announce another series of online conversations with artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina who live in diaspora.

The third talk with happen on April 10 2021 at 18 CET and will welcome Damir Avdagić, visual artist based in Norway. Damir was born in Banja Luka in 1987. His parents are in an ethnically mixed marriage and fled Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993 to Norway. His practice explores themes of historical memory and identity through text, performance and video.

The conflict in Ex-Yugoslavia (1991-1995) makes up a central part of Damir’s history. He uses this event as an entry point to address broader themes such as shifting political systems, migration and the relationship between generations. Damir’s main materials are words, spoken narratives which he collects through conversations with members of the Ex-Yugoslav community. His work culminates in projected image installations where his recordings are activated through various strategies of performance such as re-enactments, translations, readings, etc.

By focusing on the reactions and associations of the performers, Damir’s work reflects on how memories are embodied and how past events continue to affect subjects in the present. His performers are not actors, but “everyday” people who are tied to the history of the conflict and the region of Ex-Yugoslavia.

Damir is educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (MFA, 2008-2014) and from The University of California, UCLA (MFA, 2013-2016). He is a Fulbright Fellow and recipient of other prestigious grants from the Norway-America Foundation, Office of Contemporary Art, Norwegian Cultural Council & Danish Arts Fund. His work has been shown extensively, at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA, Entree Gallery, Bergen, Norway, Kunsthall Charlottenborg Copenhagen, Denmark & Kristiansand Kunsthall Norway amongst others. He was awarded the BKH’s Photo Art Prize at Fotogalleriet, Oslo in 2014. He is currently developing new work for the Norwegian Sculpture Triennial, Oslo, Norway, which opens in August 2021.

Learn more at http://damiravdagic.com/