EXHIBITION
DAMIR AVDAGIĆ:  PRIJENOS (OVERFØRING)

Opening: Friday 9 February 2024, 7 – 10pm
Exhibition: 10 February – 7 April 2024

The act of bearing witness is central to the work of Damir Avdagić, whose performative film works are testaments to microhistories of migration, familial relationships and diasporic experience set against the historical backdrop of the Yugoslav Wars. Through artistic interrogation, Avdagić meticulously delves into how these historic events – central to his own family history – spread both vertically and horizontally.

Prijenos (Overføring) takes form as a sculptural installation framing a documented performance developed together with three families who immigrated to Norway in the early 1990s. Each constellation consists of a mother and her (now grown-up) child. While the former speaks a self-experienced testimony from either before, during or after the Yugoslav Wars, the latter is given the task of simultaneously translating this story. With delicate sensitivity to the gesturing, the most miniscule of facial expressions, and the effects of the voice – produced in the dissonance of the subject speaking of itself through the mother’s voice, memories and language – through the filmic medium, Avdagić captures this act of transmission and the resultant surfacing of the unconscious.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME

Screening & Conversation
Tuesday 19 March, 6–8pm
Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Wergelandsveien 17

In conjunction with the exhibition, a screening of two previous films by Damir Avdagić will be presented at and in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus Kino in Oslo, followed by a conversation between Avdagić and UKS’ Interim Artistic Director Live Drønen. Tickets will be made available on Kunstnernes Hus Kino’s website.

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Damir Avdagić (b. 1987, Banja Luka, BA) lives and works in Oslo. Avdagić is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (MFA, 2016) and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen (MFA, 2014). Recent solo exhibitions include Projekti u dijalogu – Prosjekter i dialog at Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, Svolvær (2023), Repriza/Uzvracanje(Reprise/Response) at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA (2020) and To prosjekter i samtale at Oppland Kunstsenter, Lillehammer (2020). His work has been shown in group exhibitions at CAC Gallery, Irvine, CA (2024) GAMeC, Bergamo, ITLY (2023) Whitechapel Gallery, London UK (2023) Changwon Sculpture Biennial, Changwon, KOR (2022), KRAK – Center for Contemporary Culture, Bihać, BA (2021), Kunsthall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK (2019) and Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand, NO (2018).

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PRESS:

— Interview in Blikk (online and in-print magazine)
Kunstneren lar de tause tale, Blikk, 26.03.2024

– Review in Morgenbladet (weekly newspaper)
Tre mødres eksilfortellinger overført gjennom deres barn, Morgenbladet, 23.02.2024

– Review in Kunstkritikk (online journal)
Med mor i øynene, Kunstkritikk, 15.02.2024

– Review in Kunstavisen (online journal)
Foreldrearven, Kunstavisen, 14.02.2024

– Interview in Psykologisk.no (online journal)
– Nabolaget vårt ble utsatt for en etnisk rensing, Psykologisk.no, 07.02.2024

*Image above: Still from Damir Avdagić, Prijenos (Overføring), 2024.