ICONOGRAPHY, MEMORY AND HISTORY - THE MONTENEGRO PAVILION
It takes an Island to Feel this Good is Darja Bajagić’s exhibition for the Montenegro pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024. Curated by Ana Simona Zelenović and organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro at the initiative of commissioner Vladislav Šćepanović, the exhibition will present a critical consideration of the culture of collective memory and the relationship to shared historical heritage.
Through painting and sculpture, the artist examines and reflects upon the themes of collective memory and historical heritage, focusing on the complex and multidimensional history of the Montenegrin island of Mamula. Bajagić has spent two years researching Mamula’s history, specifically changes in its rule and function, in Montenegrin state archives; this collected material serves as the starting point for the artist’s visual compositions. The iconography of the paintings combines the aforementioned archival material with distinctive referential and symbolical interventions, characteristic of Bajagić’s work.
In her decade-long practice, Bajagić explores the ambivalence of the image, that is, dualistic representation, symbolism, and meaning. Referencing a diverse range of sources, such as dark-web sites, news media content, and religious histories, to name a few, her works—complex iconographical representations that are composed of layers of contemplated phenomena—unravel and develop in stages.
Bajagić and her project correspond to and build upon the theme of the 60th Venice Biennale, titled Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, in numerous ways. Contextually, the Mamula fort is categorically linked to the idea of “foreign” seeing as it was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, obtaining its present-day name after the general who oversaw its construction; converted into a concentration camp by the fascist forces of Benito Mussolini’s Kingdom of Italy during World War II; and revitalized, beginning in 2016, with the assistance of foreign investments. The project raises critical and pertinent philosophical questions about the position of the Other, investigating how the determination of this position determines power relations in society as well as over discourse.
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Pavilion of MONTENEGRO. It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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Pavilion of MONTENEGRO. It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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Pavilion of MONTENEGRO. It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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Pavilion of MONTENEGRO. It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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Pavilion of MONTENEGRO. It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
Darja Bajagić was born in 1990 in Podgorica, Montenegro, and raised in Egypt and the United States. In 2014, Bajagić became the first national of Montenegro to graduate with a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale University School of Art. Selected institutional solo exhibitions include Goregeous, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France (2020); Born Losers, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2018); Unlimited Hate, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien (KM-), Graz, Austria (2016). Selected institutional group exhibitions have taken place at National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic (2021); Casino Luxembourg (2020); Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic (2019); Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, Spain (2018); Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania (2018); LUMA Westbau, Zürich (2017, 2015, 2014); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2015); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2015); Museum of Modern Art Warsaw (2014); Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca (2014); Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna (2013). Her work has been included in the 42nd Montenegrin Salon of Visual Arts, Cetinje, Mexico (2020); the 57th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia (2018); and the 13th Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius, Lithuania (2018).
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