Artists’ Film International: DIASPORA #4

Note: This film is shown at Kinobox, First floor, Prostneset Havneterminal, Tromsø

Artists’ Film International is a partnership of 18 international organisations that celebrates moving-image. Every year, each organisation selects a film from an artist connected to their region, based on a collectively agreed theme. In 2023, this was Diaspora.

Branching out from the theme of DIASPORA, the films selected explore the act of dispersal, in relation to people, geographies, information and networks.

Our third programme continues looking at cultural belonging, migration and alienation, focusing on the work of Norway-based artist Damir Avdagić. This film was chosen by Tromsø Kunstforening as our contribution to AFI: Diaspora. Further films will be screened both at Kinobox throughout the spring.

Prolazi izmedju 1980-2021 (Passages between 1980-2021), Damir Avdagić, 2021, 33 mins (Selected by Tromsø Kunstforening)

In Prolazi izmedju 1980-2021 (Passages between 1980-2021) Avdagić works with five adult Bosnian/Norwegians who came to Norway as child refugees in the early 90s during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Together, the group performs testimonies, gathered from members of their parents’ and grandparents’ generation. The testimonies trace the development of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the period between 1980-1995.

In between the readings, the participants interrupt their roles, they switch between languages and engage in conversations where they discuss their experiences surrounding national, social, and political affiliation.

Damir Avdagić

Avdagić’s work has been shown at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, Changwon Sculpture Bienniale, Changwon, South Korea, Kunsthall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark & Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand, Norway amongst many others.