Darja Bajagić’s work confronts loaded thematic content and recontextualizes history, urging viewers to navigate the complexities of contemporary society through their own interpretations.
We met with the artist at the Montenegro Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in her exhibition, It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. An exhibition that reframes the layered history of Mamula Island—a site once used as a fortress, prison, and concentration camp, now transformed into a luxury hotel.
Through fragmented archival images and symbolic shapes, Darja Bajagić challenges viewers to confront the tension between historical memory and contemporary reality without offering clear answers.
“My goal is to highlight the complexities of the world that we live in,” Darja Bajagić explains, “and assert agency to the viewer.”
Scavenging images from the dark web and state archives, Darja Bajagić explores the tension between what is seen and what is hidden beneath. Through imagery and formal decisions such as shape and composition, she subtly intertwines historical references and contemporary issues through a deliberately disjointed narrative style. The resulting work is intentionally ambiguous, echoing her ongoing theme of obscured and fractured narratives.
As an artist, Darja Bajagić resists offering her audience definitive interpretations, instead urging them to engage with the work on their own terms: “I don’t give instruction for the viewer on how to understand the work.”
Darja Bajagić (B. 1990 in Montenegro) is an artist whose research-based work is known for its provocative exploration of contemporary and historical themes. She splits her time between Chicago and Montenegro. In 2014, she received an MFA from Yale University. Darja Bajagić’s work has been shown at international institutions such as Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-οn-Hudson, US); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland and Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Franc. In 2024, she represented Montenegro at the Venice Biennale, cementing her reputation as one of the most compelling contemporary artists of her generation.
Darja Bajagić was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka at the Montenegro Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in April 2024.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
