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     Sazmanab

Conversations: Iran

24 Jul 2015 - 13 Aug 2015

Dejan Kaludjerović’s first solo exhibition in Iran “Conversations – Iran” at Sazmanab presented six channel sound / site specific installation Sand Box from the series: Conversations: Hula-hoops, Elastics, Marbles and Sand.

The “Conversations” series of site-specific installations is based on research and interviews with children in different countries (from 2013-present: Russia, Serbia, Azerbaijan; planned productions include: Austria, Italy, Romania, etc). The children, locals from each location, range from 7-10 years old and come from different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Each installation is made in relation to the local site and based on specific and often universal children’s games which are accompanied by a sound piece emitted from 6–7 speakers (each speaker for the voice of one child). The children, interviewed individually, are then put into conversation with one another through the editing process, reacting within the installation to one another’s stances on political issues such as social exclusion and inclusion, foreigners, language, colonization, war, money, poverty, etc.

The series of works “Conversations: Hula-hoops, Elastics, Marbles and Sand” uses children’s narratives as a litmus test in order to detect the ways in which each society in question generates cultural differences, identifies the Other, and establishes a system of values based upon their belief structures. By following the narration of children, we learn what it means to be a member of a local community or a foreigner in each respective society, to be rich or poor, to speak a different language, to be feminine or masculine, what politics are perceived to be, what it is to colonise or be colonised, what is nation, terrorism, war, etc. The children’s answers point out the ideological, cultural and social matrixes imposed upon them. Through the world of children between the ages of 7 and 10 years old, a period when they are not yet individualised, Kaludjerović aims to observe the world of adults and the models of social construction and codification that predetermines identity for children.

Dejan Kaludjerović was born in Belgrade, ex-Yugoslavia. For his achievements in visual arts, Kaludjerović was granted Austrian citizenship. He was studying in the class of Erwin Wurm at the Academy of Applied Arts, also in Vienna, and received his MA in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in 2004. Since the beginning of his career in Belgrade the mid-1990s, Dejan Kaludjerović has been exploring the conjunction between consumerism and childhood, to analyse identity formation and stability of representational forms. Most of his paintings, drawings, objects, videos and installations, employ the processes of recycling, copying and reenacting, thus creating patterns that simulate mechanical reproduction and criticize homogeneity embedded in popular culture. Kaludjerović’s work is part of many private and public collections including MUSA, KONTAKT, STRABAG collection and collection of the Artothek des Bundes in Vienna and Salzburg Museum der Moderne, October Salon Collection, City Museum Belgrade, APT Berlin etc. He has exhibited internationally at numerous solo and group shows in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia: Artium Museum, Spain; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; Kunstlerhaus Vienna; Santa Maria delle Croci Ravenna (solo); Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (solo); 1st and 4th Beijing International Art Biennale; CAC Vilnius, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina; Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy; Essl Museum (solo); Tokyo Wonder- site – Institute of Contemporary Arts; Kunstpavillion Innsbruck; 28th International Biennial of Graphic Art, Ljubljana; Kunsthalle Krems; 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th and 55th International October Salon Belgrade; Museum of Modern Art Saint-Etienne;Sinopale, 2nd International Sinop Biennial, Turkey; 2nd Bucharest Biennial of Young Artists; Landesgalerie Linz am OÖ Landesmuseum, Linz; Prague Quadrennial and Manifesta 4 (archive project), Frankfurt, Germany. Winner of Sazmanab Residency, Tehran, Iran for 2015 and YARAT Residency, Baku, Azerbaijan for 2014. Winer of 55th October Salon Award, Belgrade, 2014. Winner of Atelier Tokyo for 2011 (Studio and travelling fellowship of 6 months provided by Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur). Winner of the CEC ARTSLINK scholarship for 2008, which included a residency at the Santa Monica 18th Street Art Center in the USA (program for art managers and artists from Eastern Europe). Winner of the Unidee residency in Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy in 2005, Emerging artist Essl Museum Award in 2003, as well as a three-month Kultur Kontakt Austria residency in Vienna in 2002. He is living and working in Vienna.

The visit of Dejan Kaludjerović to Tehran was made possible through the generous support of Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Kunst und Kultur.

Venue: Sazmanab (Khaghani St.)
July 24 – August 13, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, July 24, 2015 – 3–10 PM




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