On war, language and intergenerational trauma: An Artist Talk by Damir Avdagic


Damir Avdagic is an interdisciplinary artist, whose practice is based in text, performance and video and which deals with issues of historical memory and identity. Avdagic and the participants in his work perform recorded conversations, monologues and documents which are circumscribed by the same historical event. By emphasizing the slips, mistakes, reactions and spontaneous dialogues that surface in these performance procedures, he finds the means to reflect on the way history is transferred between generations and how past experiences of immigration and exile continue to affect subjects in the present. The historical background for Avdagic's work is the conflict in Ex-Yugoslavia, which lasted from 1991-1995 and from which his family fled to Norway in 1993. All the participants in Avdagic´s work share the same history. In anticipation of his solo presentation at Entreé which opens on Nov. 22nd, Damir Avdagic will give a presentation on his project based practice and methodology, and screen his work “Prevodenje (Translation)” from 2014.




Damir Avdagic (b. 1987 in Banja Luka, Bosnia & Hercegovina) is an interdisciplinary artist living between Oslo, Norway and New York, US. He is educated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (2014), and carries an MFA from the Interdisciplinary Studio program at UCLA, Los Angeles (2016). He is the recipient of numerous grants and prizes including The Fulbright Scholarship, NORAM Scholarship, Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond Photography Prize and The International Studio and Curatorial Program (New York) through Office for Contemporary Art Norway. His work has been presented at KALA Arts Institute, Berkeley, California, US; Novsky Projects, Los Angeles, US; Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norway and Kristiansand Kunsthall, Norway amongst others.

Image: Damir Avdagic
www.damiravdagic.com