Damir Avdagić. Pomjeranja (Forskyvninger [Dislocations]).

The history of the former Yugoslavia is one of fragmentation and episodic violence. Many still have vivid memories of the country’s disintegration during the early 1990s and the subsequent Balkan wars. More than two million people were forced to flee their homes. Of these, some 14,000 from Bosnia-Herzegovina came to Norway, Avdagić among them. Most arrived with their families and settled in different parts of the country. In retrospect, this group has often been described as an integration success story, with individuals achieving high levels of education and employment and acquiring citizenship. At the same time, experiences from their country of origin live on in the family histories of those who were forced to flee.

As a teacher at Ytre Art School since 2018, Avdagić has forged close ties with Ålesund. Parallel to the work of teaching and mentoring students, he has developed an artistic practice with a forceful, distinctive and independent voice. Through his art, Avdagić contributes to a broader understanding of the complexity and diversity that can become an aspect of human experience for any one of us. His work offers important insights in an era of increased polarisation and emerging conflicts between former allies. Alongside the contemporary socio-political relevance of Avdagić’s practice, a second reason to showcase this distinctive body of work is the artist’s connections to the local region.

Damir Avdagić (b. 1987 in Banja Luka, BiH) lives and works in Oslo. He graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (MFA 2014) and the University of California, UCLA (MFA 2016), and has been recipient of a Norwegian Government ten-year artist grant since 2025.