Danica Dakić
– b. 1962. in Sarajevo. Danica Dakić’s work has been widely exhibited internationally. Her solo exhibitions include the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), Bauhaus Museum Weimar (2019), Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt (2013), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011), Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2010), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2010) and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2009). She has participated in group exhibitions such as documenta 12, Kassel (2007), 8th and 11th Istanbul Biennials (2003, 2009), Sydney Biennial (2010), Liverpool Biennial (2010), Kyiv International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2012), São Paulo Biennial (2014), Bienal de Cuenca (2016). Her works can be found in public collections such as the Tate, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the Hessen Kassel Heritage, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Generali Foundation, Salzburg, and the National Gallery of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo. She currently lives in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Sarajevo.
Art is my El Dorado1.
I came to Düsseldorf to study four years before the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I remained in Germany during the siege of Sarajevo. All contact with my family and friends in Sarajevo was cut off for almost four years. In the absence of any other connection, I began collecting newspaper photos and headlines about life there. The gap between the narratives shaped by the media and personal experience has artistically occupied me ever since.
The war had a strong influence on my life and my art. The questioning of the meaning and function of art led to new themes, new media and new ways of working.
Being a bit of a foreigner everywhere is a good position for an artist. The distance enables a critical observer’s position. Learning to live with the difference and to speak and act from that position – that is where the potential of incongruence lies.
Art can’t change the world, or can it, maybe just a little?
It is true that artists draw on their own experiences, but biographical events, things I have experienced, rarely find their way directly into my work. The artistic process is much more complex. My work speaks to experiences that are important to many people: mobility, migration, living in multiple languages and cultures, but also questions about the perception of the global present2.
I am an “image maker.” I believe in images and their power. My works—whether films, video or audio installations, sculptures, or photographs—are images that cannot be expressed through other media.
I often start with an image in my head, an abstract idea that promises me the potential to develop into a path. Where the path leads varies greatly from work.
The art-historical references sensitize us to processes that have to do with cultural memory, but therefore also always with stereotypes and prejudices: a “picture within a picture” establishes various interconnections between our present and history.
The pursuit of visibility, even when it does not concern direct visibility, is an attempt to make something else visible—the poetic dimension of human existence, perhaps the only thing truly worth believing in. Mise-en-scène, performativity, and theatricality open up the possibility of working with protagonists in a way that transforms the film set into both a productive and fictional space, where desires can be articulated, enabling people to reach places that were previously unimaginable to them.
The text is based on excerpts from interviews that the artist has given over the years.
1EL DORADO, C-Print, Alu Dibond, 2007 © Danica Dakić VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
2AUTOPORTRAIT, Video still, 1999 © Danica Dakić VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
– r. 1962. u Sarajevu. Radovi Danice Dakić izlagani su na međunarodnom nivou. Imala je samostalne izložbe u Paviljonu Bosne i Hercegovine na 58. Venecijanskom bijenalu (2019), Bauhaus muzeju u Weimaru (2019), Muzeju moderne umjetnosti u Frankfurtu (2013), Hammer muzeju u Los Anđelesu (2011), Muzeju savremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu (2010), Generali Foundation u Beču (2010) i Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2009). Učestvovala je na grupnim izložbama, uključujući documenta 12 u Kasselu (2007), 8. i 11. Istanbulskom bijenalu (2003, 2009), Bijenalu u Sydneyju (2010), Bijenalu u Liverpoolu (2010), Međunarodnom bijenalu savremene umjetnosti u Kijevu (2012), Bijenalu u São Paulu (2014) i Bijenalu u Cuenci (2016). Njeni radovi nalaze se u javnim kolekcijama, uključujući Tate Modern u Londonu, Centre Pompidou u Parizu, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Hessen Kassel Heritage, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Generali Foundation u Salzburgu i Nacionalnu galeriju Bosne i Hercegovine u Sarajevu. Trenutno živi i radi u Düsseldorfu, Berlinu i Sarajevu.
Umjetnost je moj El Dorado1.
Došla sam u Düsseldorf na studij četiri godine prije rata u Bosni i Hercegovini. Ostala sam u Njemačkoj tokom opsade Sarajeva. Sav kontakt s mojom porodicom i prijateljima u Sarajevu bio je prekinut gotovo četiri godine. U nedostatku bilo kakve druge veze, počela sam skupljati novinske fotografije i naslove o životu tamo. Raskorak između narativa koje oblikuju mediji i ličnog iskustva nešto je što me umjetnički zaokuplja od tada.
Rat je snažno utjecao na moj život i moju umjetnost. Propitivanje smisla i funkcije umjetnosti dovelo je do novih tema, novih medija i novih načina rada.
Biti svuda pomalo stranac je dobra pozicija za umjetnika. Distanca omogućava kritičku perspektivu. Naučiti živjeti s razlikom te govoriti i djelovati iz te pozicije – u tome leži potencijal nepodudarnosti.
Umjetnost ne može promijeniti svijet. Ili može? Možda samo malo?
Istina je da umjetnici crpe inspiraciju iz vlastitog iskustva, ali biografski događaji, ono što sam proživjela, rijetko pronalaze direktan put u moj rad. Umjetnički proces je mnogo kompleksniji. Moj rad govori o iskustvima važnim za mnoge ljude: mobilnosti, migraciji, životu u više jezika i kultura, ali i o pitanjima percepcije globalne sadašnjosti2.
Ja sam “stvaratelj slika”. Vjerujem u slike i njihovu moć. Moji radovi – bilo da su filmovi, video- ili audio-instalacije, skulpture ili fotografije – slike su koje se ne mogu izraziti u drugim medijima.
Često započinjem s nekom slikom u glavi, apstraktnom idejom koja mi obećava potencijal razvoja u određeni pravac. Kuda taj put vodi, varira od rada do rada.
Umjetničko-historijske reference senzibiliziraju nas za procese povezane s kulturnim pamćenjem, ali istovremeno i za stereotipe i predrasude: „slika u slici“ uspostavlja različite veze između sadašnjosti i prošlosti.
Potraga za vidljivošću, čak i kada nije riječ o direktnoj vidljivosti, pokušaj je da se učini vidljivim nešto drugo – poetska dimenzija ljudskog postojanja, možda jedina stvar u koju zaista vrijedi vjerovati. Mise-en-scène, performativnost i teatralnost otvaraju mogućnost rada s protagonistima na način koji filmski set pretvara u istovremeno produktivan i fiktivan proctor, gdje se želje mogu artikulisati, omogućujući ljudima da dosegnu mjesta koja su im ranije bila nezamisliva.
Ovaj tekst temelji se na odlomcima iz intervjua koje je umjetnica davala tokom godina.
1EL DORADO, C-Print, Alu Dibond, 2007 © Danica Dakić VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
2AUTOPORTRAIT, Video still, 1999 © Danica Dakić VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
