Photo credit: Matt Grubb Damir Avdagic
Damir Avdagic’s 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 Avdagic’s family history and he uses this event as an entry point to address themes such as migration, the relationship between generations and how collective and individual histories intersect.
Avdagic’s main material is words; spoken narratives which he collects through conversations with members of the Ex-Yugoslav community and which are activated through various strategies of performance in moving image installations. In Avdagic’s work, narratives become interchangeable between their origin and performer, time periods and generations are put in dialogue with each other, reflecting on the effects of the past on the present.
Damir Avdagic is educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (MFA, 2008-2014) and from The University of California (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 amongst others.
Avdagic’s work has been shown at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, Entree Gallery Norway, Kunsthall Charlottenborg Copenhagen, Kristiansand Kunsthall Norway, amongst others. He was awarded the BKH’s Photo Art Prize at Fotogalleriet, Oslo in 2014.
