Damir Očko
Works
“Aesthetic, conceptual and formal frameworks of Damir Očko’s practice are mainly shaped around the central position of a moving image-based work, exploring complex cinematic relations to create visually and intellectually immersive works. Such constellations are structured around film as central element. Both his exhibitions and works represent complex settings, meeting places of various narratives. Forms of language as communication and mechanism of the body have an important role in Očko’s practice. His artistic interest is based in exploring the poetic and political potential of the human body, placing it in a critical space to reflect on forms of power, fragility or violence and on its relations to the environment – a winter landscape, a volcano, a stage or an abstract darkness, as fragments of the world we inhabit. His exhibitions usually unfold as apparatuses by which the artist questions his approach to the process of artistic production itself, establishing a subjective space where film and poetry meet.” – Branka Benčić, curator
CV
Born in 1977, lives and works in Zagreb (HR)
STUDIES AND RESIDENCIES
2011
Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin (IE)
2010
Nordic Art Center Dale (NO)
Künstlerresidenz Blumen, Leipzig (DE)
2008-2009
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE)
2007
HIAP, Helsinki (FI)
KulturKontakt, Vienna (AT)
Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art, Tirana (AL)
1997-2003
Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb (HR)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo shows
2024
‘Tender Days’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2023
‘Bird’s Milk and Other Spirits’, Kunsthalle Krems (AT)
2022
‘Exploratives’ (with Driant Zeneli), Museo Nazionale di Matera/Ex Ospedale di San Rocco, Matera (IT)
‘Spirits’, Galerija Manuš, Split (HR)
‘Dear Tiziana’, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Naples (IT)
2021
‘Parrot’s Dream’, Gilles Drouault galerie/multiples, Paris (FR)
‘Kunstverein Is Moving’, Kunstverein Graz (AT)
‘Studio Practice’, Galerija Kula, Split (HR)
2020
‘Pear Fate Meter’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2019
‘Human Scale’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (HR)
2018
‘Desire in Language’ (with Roman Štetina), National Gallery Prague (CZ)
‘Dicta’, Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR)
See more
‘Dicta’, CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux (FR)
‘Dicta’, Museo Amparo, Puebla (MX)
2016
‘Repeat After Me’, Gaep (formerly EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS), Bucharest (RO)
‘Year Out of Shape’, Tiziana di Caro Gallery, Naples (IT)
‘Damir Ocko’, DAZIBAO, Montreal (CA)
2015
‘Studies on Shivering: The Third Degree’, Croatian Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale (IT)
‘Studies on Shivering: The Hunt’, Kasia Michalski Gallery, Warsaw (PL)
2014
‘Studies on Shivering’, Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (AT) (cat.)
2012
‘Damir Ocko: The Kingdom of Glottis’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR)
Group shows
2024
15th Bienal de la Habana – ‘Shared Horizons’, Havana (CU) (upcoming)
BF24 Photography Biennial, Vila Franca de Xira, Lisbon (PT) (upcoming)
‘Alchemy of Encounter’, Collection Lambert, Avignon (FR)
‘Curated by 2024: In the Mood for Interruption’, Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna (AT)
‘Prove per un paesaggio d’insieme. Collezione Agovino’, Palazzo Leonetti, Naples (IT)
2023
‘The Signs for Somewhere and Elsewhere and Here and Now’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘Constellations. 10 Years of Apoteka’, Apoteka, Vodnjan (HR)
‘Deep, Deep Down’, MUDAM Luxembourg (LU)
‘Au hasard Balthazar’, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille (FR)
2022
‘The Domino Effect 3’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘Words to Be Seen’, MMSU – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR)
‘Trilogie de cendres’ / ‘Trilogy of ashes’, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (FR)
2021
‘The Domino Effect 2’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2020
‘The Domino Effect’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2019
‘Our Selfie’, MO Museum, Vilnius (LT)
T-HTAward, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (HR)
‘54th Zagreb Salon: Without Anesthesia’, HDLU Zagreb (HR)
2018
‘CUT/REZ’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (HR)
‘RECTO/VERSO’, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (FR)
2016
‘Politiche Della Natura’, Fondazione Zimei, Pescara (IT)
‘Le temps de l’audace et de l’engagement – De leur temps (5)’, Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (FR)
‘NORMALITIES’, Austrian Cultural Forum New York (USA)
SELECTED FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS
2024
Videoart at midnight for Berlin Art Week, Gropius Bau, Berlin (DE)
2023
‘The Dawn Chorus’, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (HR)
2020
3rd Industrial Art Biennial – ‘Ride Into the Sun’, Labin (HR)
2019
‘Double Feature: Damir Očko’, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (DE)
2018
PICA – Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (USA)
‘Il Corpo è un indumento sacro’, Museo Novecento, Florence (IT)
2017
Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (DE)
2016
The 14th International FestivalSignes de Nuit Paris (Night Award for The Third Degree) (FR)
2014
25fps, International experimental film and video festival: Reflexion program, Zagreb (HR)
2013
‘Artist Cinema: Damir Očko’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (HR)
