Photo Talks: Ismar Čirkinagić and Per Bak Jensen

With the war in Ukraine, images of war and people on the run have again become part of our everyday life and our media surface. How the war is presented to us, in i.a. images, is essential to how we experience the essence of war, how it challenges our ethics and how it awakens our empathy.

As PhD scholar Tijana Mišković, who has curated the current exhibition at SMK Connections — Danish artists from the former Yugoslavia, writes regarding the exhibition:

"In a time characterised by emigration, it is important to focus on the connections that arise between different countries and cultures. Art can create meaningful connections across the divide that migration has created.”

Traces of war

The talk is based on the exhibition TWO ROOMS in the Black Diamond; an exhibition that examines the war as a phenomenon that can be viewed both from the inside and from the outside.

Art does not necessarily relate directly to war, but also all the forces that war brings into play, such as time, transience, spirituality and religion. Thus, the exhibition, which the two artists will talk about, becomes a space where you can think about the consequences that war always entails.

Participants

Ismar Čirkinagić

Ismar Čirkinagić (b. 1973) was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2000-2006. Čirkinagić was born in Prijedor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, but fled in 1992 from the war in Bosnia to Denmark. Remembrance and socio-political conditions are pervasive themes in his practice. He has exhibited at places such as Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast (2016), The Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb (2021) and Liverpool Biennial (2012) as well as at several museums and art galleries in Denmark, including Aros, SMK, Arken, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kunstmuseum Brandts, Kunsthal Aarhus, Sorø Art Museum, HEART and Esbjerg Art Museum.

Per Bak Jensen

Per Bak Jensen (b. 1949) was in the period 1986-2009 lecturer in photography at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He tries to capture a kind of timelessness in his images without the use of manipulation and has inspired several generations of photo artists in Scandinavia. His works are presented internationally in collections at MoMA, New York, Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, as well as in Denmark at ARKEN Museum for Modern Art, Louisiana Museum for Modern Art, Sorø Art Museum and Royal Danish Library, The National Collection of Photography.

Tijana Miskovic

Tijana Mišković (b. 1982) is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts with an MA in art and theory and has curated exhibitions in Denmark and internationally since 2008. She is currently a PhD scholar at SMK and the University of Copenhagen, where she focuses her research on works by Danish contemporary artists from the former Yugoslavia. As the practical part of her PhD project, in autumn 2022 she will curate the exhibition Connections — Danish artists from the former Yugoslavia at SMK as well as a seminar that explores the relationship between curation and research.