Damir Ocko Damir Ocko

DAMIR OCKO DAMIR OCKO

Born in Zagreb (Croatia), 1977. He lives and works in Zagreb.

EDUCATION AND RESIDENCIES

2012 AIR Krems, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau (Austria)

2011 Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (Ireland)

2010 Nordic Art Center Dale, Dale (Norway) Künstlerresidenz Blumen, Leipzig (Germany)

2008-2009 Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany)

2007 HIAP, Helsinki (Finland) KulturKontakt, Wien (Austria) Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art, Tirana (Albania)

1997-2003 Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb (Croatia)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2018 Desire in Language, National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic (with Roman Štetina), curated by Adam Budak Dicta, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, curated by Agnès Violeau Dicta, CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux , France, curated by Agnès Violeau Dicta, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico, curated by Agnès VioleauJeu de Paume, Paris, France CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux , France

2017 Agency Gallery, London Kasia Michalski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2016 Eastward Prospectus, Bucharest, Romania Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Napoli DAZIBAO, Montreal, Canada

2015 Studies on Shivering: The Third Degree, Croatian Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, curated by Marc Bembekoff Photon - Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana (Slovenia) Studies on Shivering, Gallery Kasia Michalski, Warsaw (Poland)

2014 Studies on Shivering, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin (Ireland), curated by Rayne Booth Damir Očko – Temporary Encounters #3, Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art, Vodnjan (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić Damir Očko - Studies on Shivering, KM - Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (Austria), curated by Sandro Droschl

2013 Damir Očko: Films, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Salerno (Italy) Psst, Trapéz, Budapest (Hungary) The Body Score, Yvon Lambert Gallery - project space, Paris (France) 2012 The Kingdom of Glottis, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France), curated by Mark Bembekoff We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, Galleria Tiziana di Caro, Salerno (Italy) On Ulterior Scale, Multimedia Center Luka, Pula (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić Očko / Tadić, L’école supérieure d’arts & médias de Caen (France), curated by Brent Klinkum / Transat Video Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (Ireland)

2011 On Ulterior Scale, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf (Germany) Jedinstvo Hall - Gallery Mochvara, 26th Music Biennale, Zagreb (Croatia)

2010 Castle & Elephant, Coventry (UK) Event Horizon, Kunstverein Leipzig, Leipzig (Germany) The Age of Happiness, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Salerno (Italy) Screening Room, Blumen, Leipzig (Germany)

2009 The Age of Happiness, Lothringer13-Städtische Kunsthalle München, Munich (Germany) The Age of Happiness, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany)

2008 Safe way out, Gallery 10m2, Zagreb (Croatia)

2007 The End of the World, Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia) Why does Gravity make things fall?, Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art (with N. Domidiano and S. Kanani), Tirana (Albania)

2006 The Missing Mountain, Barutana, Osijek (Croatia) Garden project, Gallery VN, Zagreb (Croatia) Compositions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lotrscak Tower, Zagreb (Croatia)

2005 Driving world does not end at the same point, Gallery Moria, Hvar (Croatia) Avoid, Museum of Contemporary Art, (with I. Franke and S.Vujicic), Zagreb (Croatia) Resil(i)ence, PM Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia)

2004 Ich leb allein in meinem Himmel (PILOT 04), Museum of Contemporary Art - Project room, Zagreb (Croatia)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2018 CUT/REZ, curated by Branka Benčić, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Croatia RECTO/VERSO, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France And we were trying to be there, urated by Damien Beyrouthy, La Chaufferie - The University of Quebec (UQAM), Montreal, Canada Lewben Art Foundation Playlist, curated by Francesca Ferrarini, Mo muziejus, Vilnius (LT) Rassegna video - "Il corpo è un indumento sacro", curated by Paola Ugolini, Museo del Novecento di Firenze IT

2017 collection 100%, Galerie de Multiples. Paris, France Temporarry Encounters, Galerija Galženica, Velika Gorica, Croatia, curated by Branka Benčić The Arbitrary Nature of Words and Everyday Life, Pavelhaus, Bad Radkersburg, Austria, curated by Petja Petja Grafenauer and David Kranzelbinder The Arbitrary Nature of Words and Everyday Life, Galerija Vodnikova, Ljubljana, Slovenia, curated by Petja Petja Grafenauer and David Kranzelbinder Frammenti di Paradiso, Collezione Agovino, Le Scalze – Chiesa di San Giuseppe a Pontecorvo, Napoli, Italy 2016 Le temps de l'audace et de l'engagement - De leur temps (5) - Institut d'art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (IAC), Villeurbanne, France NORMALITIES - Austrian Cultural Forum New York, New York City, NY │ curated by Marko Lulić Politiche Della Natura, Fondazione Zimei, Pescara, curated by Massimiliano Scuderi

2015 100%, Galerie de Multiples, Paris, France Through the Barricades, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, Italy │ curated by Andrea Bruciati The Beast and the Sovereign, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany │ curated by Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler, Paul B. Preciado and Valentín Roma Two Mouthsful of Silence, Duke’s House 32-38 Duke’s Place, Aldgate, London, United Kingdom │ curated by Bea Herhold de Sousa 3rd Project Biennial D-0 ARK Underground, Konjic, BIH │ curated by Adela Demetja and ROTOR (Graz)

2014 LA PERMANENCE, Musée de la Danse, Rennes, France │ curated by Boris Charmatz Notes on Undoing, Garis & Hahn, New York (USA), curated by Branka Benčić Noli me tangere. L’arte in movimento e la malattia dei sentimenti di Michelangelo Antonioni, Biblioteca Civica, Verona (Italy), curated by Eva Comuzzi and Andrea Bruciati Great Undoing, 54th Annale, Poreč (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić The Sounds of Silence, CAC La Halle des bouchers, Vienne (France), curated by Marc Bembekoff Attention Economy, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien (Austria), curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen and Vivien Trommer La disparition des lucioles, Collection Lambert, Prison Sainte Anne, Avignon (France), curated by Eric Mézil Journey at the end of the word, Galleria Tiziana di Caro, Salerno (Italy), curated by Antonello Tolve Interprète, FRAC le Plateau, Paris (France), curated by Xavier Franceschi

2013 J’ouvre les yeux et tu es là (I open my eyes and you are there) | Collection MUDAM, MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (Luxembourg), curated by Christophe Gallois Le ragioni della pittura - Esiti e Prospettive di un Medium, Palazzo de Sanctis, Castelbasso (TE, Italy), curated by Laura Cherubini and Eugenio Viola TRAPEZ 1, TRAPEZ, Budapest (Hungary) Lighting out for the Territories, TRAFO - hause for contemporary art, Budapest (Hungary), curated by Leila Topić

2012 Voices of Truth, Villa Romana, Firenze (Italy), curated by Adela Demetja Takes on Memory & Flight Paths, Gallery Augusta, HIAP, Helsinki (Finland), curated by Marita Muukkonen Lightning out of the territories, Kunsthalle Wien project space, Wien (Austria), curated by Leila Topić Abstraction - Modern and Contemporary, Galerija Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb (Croatia) T-HT award, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)

2011 On stage: narrative and performance in contemporary Croatian video, Künstlerhaus Wien, Wien (Austria), curated by Jasna Jakšić Southern Panoramas, 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil, Sao Paulo (Brazil) CITIES, Torrance Art Museum, L.A. (USA), curated by Camilla Boemio After the Crash, Museo - Orto Botanico, Roma (Italy), curated by Camilla Boemio PRETTY VACANT – spaces of uncertainty and discontinuity, POLIS 2011, Pula (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić Jour de Fête, Private Art Space Gallery, Barcelona (Spain), curated by Pedro Torres and Alexandra Laudo Picture of Sound, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Evelina Turković Mit Se ife und Gabeln, Kunstraum Kreunzlingen, Kreunzlingen (Switzerland), curated by Tanja Trampe and Daniela Petrini

2010 Picture of Sound, Multimedia Center Split, Split (Croatia), curated by Evelina Turković PostDimension – A journey in the Contemporary Art, Torrione Passari, Molfetta (Italy), curated by Giacomo Zaza Videonale Sarajevo Intervention - Balkan Box, DUPLEX, Sarajevo (BIH), curated by Pierre Courten Avventure Minime, Convento di San Lorenzo, Salerno (Italy), curated by Antonello Tolve Working Title, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany) Here and Now, Bologna Art First, Museo Archeologico, Bologna (Italy), curated by Julia Draganović

2009 Working title, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (Poland), curated by Anna Ptak, Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka & Marianna Dobkowska Grenzenlos-Bez granica, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (Croatia), curated by Jerica Zihtel CITIES, Roma Festival dell’ Architettura, Auditorium Arte, Rome (Italy), curated by Camilla Boemio VIDEOARTEVERONA - Sezione Visione Video, Art Verona, Verona (Italy), curated by Maria Rosa Sossai GENERATIONS, AKTO4 - Festival for Contemporary Art, Bitola (Macedonia), curated by Nataša Bordožić, Video Salon, Duplex / Sarajevo Film Festival, Sarajevo (BIH), curated by Pierre Courten Cinemaniac, MultiMedia Center, Pula (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić Wondering where the ducks went, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Salerno (Italy), curated by Simona Brunetti Dealing with Fear, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany) Videos Europa, Le Fresnoy - National Studio for Contemporary Art, Tourcoing (France), curated by Pascale Pronnier

2008 COMUNICOLOGY, Projektraum Römerstrasse, Stuttgart (Germany), curated by Konstantin Lom 4th Busan International Video Festival, Art Space Bandee, Busan (Korea), curated by Pierre Courtin In Transition Russia, National Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow (Russia) / National Center of Contemporary art, Yekaterinburg (Russia), curated by NeMe SPAPORT, 1st Annual International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Banja Luka (BIH), curated by Ana Nikitovic KAIROS, Hrvatska Selekcija BJCEM, Mali Salon / Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (Croatia) / Umetnostna Galerija Maribor, Maribor (Slovenia) Salon of Revolution, HDLU, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Antonia Majača & Ivana Bago Where the east ends, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (Germany) Re-reading of the future, International Triennial of contemporary Art, National Gallery, Prague (Czech Republic), curated by Nathalie Hénon & Jean-François Rettig 13th Biennale of young artists BJCEM, Puglia (Italy) Croatia First Minute, Verket, Avesta (Sweden) Balkan Express, Gallery Piksel, Warsaw (Poland) ISOLOMANIA, Municipal Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia (Cyprus), curated by Helene Black

2007 Somewhere far away, Lothringer13, Städtische Kunsthalle München, Laden, Munich (Germany), curated by Adela Demetja Under Construction, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Jasna Jakšić T-HT award@MSU, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (Croatia) The post cinema Experience, d/Art/07 - Australian center for photography, Sydney (Australia), curated by Ricardo Felipe New Revelations, Spectrum project space, Perth (Australia), curated by Leon Marvel, Croitoru, Demetja und Ocko, Art Point Gallery, Wien (Austria), curated by Katarzyna Uszynska Heroes in Transition, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (UK), curated by Jasna Jakšić

2006 Fetish, Gallery VN, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Olga Majcen 28th Zagreb Youth Salon, HDLU, Zagreb (Croatia) Finale 2006, Putar award, Gallery Galzenica, Velika Gorica (Croatia)

2005 Back to the future, Gallery SC, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Leila Topić Backwards / Pixelpoint05, Mestna Gallery, Nova Gorica (Slovenia), curated by Igor Španjo Postskulpture, HDLU, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Zvonko Maković 39th Zagreb Salon of Fine Arts, HDLU, Zagreb (Croatia)

Festivals / Performances / Screenings

2018 Lewben Art Foundation Playlist, curated by Francesca Ferrarini, Mo Museum, Vilnius Il corpo è un indumento sacro, curated by Paola Ugolini, Videocittà, Roma Il corpo è un indumento sacro, curated by Paola Ugolini, Museo del Novecento, Firenze EMAF -European media art festival , curated by Katrin Mundt, Osnabruck, Germany 2017 Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

2016 The 14th International FestivalSignes de Nuit Paris (Night Award for The Third Degree) The 14th International FestivalSignes de Nuit Portugal Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin

2014 Masbedo – Todestriebe, (collaborative contribution) Fondazione Merz, Turin (Italy), curated by Olga Gambari 25fps: Reflexion program, Zagreb (Croatia) Artists' Cinema: New Narratives, Pula Film Festival, Cinema Valli, Pula (Croatia), screening programme curated by Branka Benčić

2013 Alternative film/video festival, Belgrade (Serbia), curated by Branka Benčić VIDEOEX, Experimental film and video festival, Zurich (Switzerland) Artist Cinema: Damir Očko, Museum of contemporary art, Zagreb (Croatia), curated by Branka Benčić

2012 ACTS OF VOICING: Filmprogramm, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart (Germany), curated by Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ 25fps, International film and video festival, Zagreb (Croatia) Jour de Fête - Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand (France), curated by Pedro Torres and Alexandra Laudo John Cage: "4:33: lezione sui funghi", Tenuta dello Scompiglio, Vorno, Lucca (Italy)

2011 98 video - Cinematography is the strongest weapon, 98 WEEKS Project Space, Beirut (Lebanon), curated by Gaia Casagrande and Barbara Goretti

2010 Film screening - The Age of Happiness, Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Forde (Norway) Film screening - The Moon shall never take my Voice, Nordic Art Center Dale (Norway) Nuit Blanche 2010, Point Ephemere, Paris (France), video programme by Pierre Courten Territories of the In/Human, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart (Germany), curated by Iris Dressler & Hans D. Christ

2009 Something in Common, Chisinau (Moldova), curated by Nataša Bordožić SuperNova, La Generale, Paris (France) ille3000-Europa XXL, Tri Postal / Gare Saint Sauveur Lille (France), curated by Pierre Courten 2008 Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Germany) Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid (Spain) Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris (France)

2007 Rencontres Internationales-Paris-Berlin-Madrid, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris (France) Videojamit4, HIAP project room, Helsinki (Finland) d/Art/07, Chauvel cinema, Sydney (Australia) 52nd International Venice Biennale, Venice (Italy), video programme curated by Edi Muka

2006 Urban park intervention within the Garden project, Zagreb (Croatia)

2004 Little Queer overture (with London gay symphony orchestra), Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb (Croatia) Little Queer overture (with London gay symphony orchestra), St. John's Church, London (UK)

COLLECTIONS

Louis Vuitton Fondation for Creation, Paris (France) FRAC le Plateau, Paris (France) CNAP - Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris (France) MUDAM Luxembourg - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (Luxembourg) Private collections

STATEMENT

Video, film, performance, disegno, scultura e musica sono tutti elementi utilizzati al fine di afferrare la densità di una situazione data. Lavoro nel mezzo, tra realtà e finzione: documento la realtà, mantenendo le distanze. Piuttosto che focalizzarmi sul risultato, tendo ad esplorare il potenziale dei soggetti inquadrati nel mio lavoro. Associando questo potenziale a circostanze date, le situazioni ospitate sulle scene e le performances, riflettono l’ambiente e il tempo in cui si svolgono. In molti dei miei lavori recenti adotto un’asserzione poetica, particolarmente efficace al fine di condurre la nostra attenzione verso la riflessione sul presente, passato e futuro, attraverso personaggi che sembrano esistere in un luogo impossibile, a prescindere da tutto ciò che accade intorno a loro. In tal senso le contraddizioni, così come l’immaginazione sono poste in una condizione possibile solo in ambito artistico.

Video, film, performance, sculpture, drawing and music are all tools that are utilized in order to grasp the density of a given situation in my work. Working in between the edges of reality and fiction: I document reality, while maintaining critical distance from it. Instead of focusing on the issue I rather tend to explore the potential in subjects placed in my work. Adopting this potential to the given circumstances, space plays host to staged actions and performances, reflecting the environment and time in which they appear. In my most recent works I adopt a poetic assertion, particularly effective at drawing our attention to reflect past, present and future, through characters that seems to exist in an impossible place despite of everything else going on around them. In that way contradictions as well as imaginations are placed in primary constellations - conditions possible only in art.

Damir Ocko DICTA I

Dicta I 2017 4K riversato in HD / 4K transferred to HD durata: 12' 17'' / duration: 12' 17'' https://vimeo.com/233987943 password: brecht

Dicta, dadaist and at times incomprehensible rehearsal of the authoritative speech departs from the conceptual contemplation on the word ‘dicta’—plural of the word ‘dictum’ meaning a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source or a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle. The film features radical reading of a poem composed by the artist based on fragmented cut-outs from Bertolt Brecht’s “Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties” (1935). Originally recounting the importance and difficulty of telling the truth in the times of turmoil. Brecht’s views on fascism and its relation to capitalism, populism, truth and manipulation of the truth disturbingly echo today as relevant as ever. In the film Očko not only revisits and re-reads the text as such, but, by cutting word after word out of it, composes a randomized, radical, dadaist speech that by means of its own rearranged and manipulated structure proposes a critical commentary on the construction of meaning in the age of “alternative facts” . Visually film utters the stage for rehearsing and failing of the authority in the current age following the patterns of “false” trough various sets of images. While main focus of the camera remains on the actor whose false eyes stare bluntly out of the screen, further scenes such as closeups of faces, eyes, tongue, heavily transformed with make up mimic the variety of animals that use mimicry to alter the familiar and useful codes of behavior. As Non-venomous Milk snake mimicking venomous Coral snake, but never truly able to get the right pattern of colors film as such translates the entire inner protocol where reading of the broken text in broken language trying to mimic the authoritarian diction while bluntly falls out of the sync never truly being able to recollect itself beyond an attempt. DICTA II

DICTA II 2018 4K riversato in HD / 4K transferred to HD durata:10'20” / duration: 10'20” https://vimeo.com/252866851 password: safeword

Following the radical reading of nonsense text in Dicta I as the critical commentary on the production of nonsense in the current political sphere, Dicta II continues to explore the notion of nonsense through reading of the safewords, collected over time on various BDSM forums. Spoken in dry and emotionless manner resembling a distorted dictionary organized by an unspecified method, these words cluster together by mimicking the architecture of language. The video follows a sparring session between two MMA fighters intersected by scenes of an unspecified game with balls in different sizes and colors. The scenes punctuated by the reading of safewords further explore the idea of consensual violent interactions and their limits as a metaphor for the current state of democracy by simulating language purely made on the concept of the perpetual “STOP." 2014-2015

2014-2015 2016 carta e foto strappate / ripped paper and photographies cm 150 x 188 UNTITLED (YEAR SUNDRIED)

Untitled (Year Sundried) 2016 fotografia e inchiostro su carta / photocollage and ink on archival paper cm 125,2 x m 79,7 UNTITLED (YEAR INFLAMABLE)

Untitled (Year Inflamable) 2016 fotografia e inchiostro su carta / photocollage on archival paper cm 99,6x79,7 YEAR OUT OF SHAPE

Year out of Shape 2016 plexiglass, carte, fogli, pelle di serpente / plexiglass, papers, foil, snake skin cm 135 ᴓ

Year out of Shape (dettaglio / detail) CALENDAR (OCTOBER)

Calendar (October) 2016 fotografia e inchiostro su carta / photocollage and ink on archival paper cm 80 x 63,5 CALENDAR (AUGUST)

Calendar (August) 2016 fotografia e inchiostro su carta / photocollage on archival paper cm 80 x 63,5 THE THIRD DEGREE

The Third Degree 2015 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transfered to full HD video sound, color 10ʼ30" ed. 5 + 2 AP https://vimeo.com/128372275 password: skinus

Il termine “Third Degree”, “Terzo Grado” ha un doppio significato nella lingua inglese: indica un’ustione molto grave, ma anche il processo di estorsione di una confessione attraverso la violenza. Messo in moto da prospettive e interpretazioni violente, il film è una critica, seppur poetica, che apre un varco nell'annebbiamento che offusca le relazioni tra risorse produttive, controllo e i soggetti stessi; dando rilievo a metodi alternativi di comprensione, come riflessione determinata allo stesso tempo da parametri sociali, politici, estetici.

Third Degree è un film girato in una unica scena che esplora, attraverso sequenze di primi piani, cicatrici che risultano da ustioni di terzo grado; esse sono filmate attraverso una installazione di specchi rotti, che riflettono anche il backstage in cui si vede la troupe che filma, facendo sì che il soggetto del film si sovrapponga con il processo di realizzazione. Third Degree (Il Terzo grado) è il risultato delle questioni emerse in conseguenza alle violente modalità di realizzazione di TK, il film precedente. Integrando ed esponendo il contesto del set cinematografico Third Degree svela ciò che abitualmente è nascosto, le componenti del processo di realizzazione che interagiscono tra loro per determinare la natura e i criteri di appartenenza ad un sistema di relazioni e al loro ambiente. Infatti, se il contesto informa, esso allo stesso tempo trasforma, attuando spostamenti semantici e mostrando strutture interne al fare arte, al fine di creare un nuovo tipo di retorica, un meccanismo che rafforza la nostra posizione sia di testimoni che di attori del complesso mondo di oggi.

The term “Third Degree” has a double significance in the English language: it is a way to classify a burn of a very strong degree, but it can also signify a process of extorting a confession under violence. Inspired by such violent interpretations and perspectives, film tries to critically, yet poetically, cut through the collective haze that blurs the world’s many realities, and to give rise to alternative methods of understanding as a reflection determined at the same time by social, political and aesthetic parameters.

The Third Degree, is a single scene film in which one can see a close-up of skin scars resulting from third degree burns, surrounded by set of broken mirrors. Filmed in a particular way through an installation of broken mirrors that also reflect the crew and the whole background process while filming the scars, the texture of the skin becomes almost an abstract element. By exposing the context of the film set, The Third Degree reveals what is hidden from sight, the component parts of the film making process that interact among themselves to determine the nature and criterion of belonging to a system in relation to its environment. For if the context informs, it also transforms by making semantic shifts and by showing internal structures of artmaking in order to create a new kind of rhetoric—a mechanism that reinforces our position as both witnesses and actors of today’s complex world. THE THIRD DEGREE

The Third Degree 2015 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transfered to full HD video sound, color 10ʼ30" THE THIRD DEGREE

The Third Degree 2015 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transfered to full HD video sound, color 10ʼ30" THE THIRD DEGREE SCORES

The Third Degree scores 2016 n. 6 collage, cm 55 x 41 ognuno / each THE THIRD DEGREE IV

The Third Degree #4 2015 fotografia e specchio / photography and mirror cm 787 x 116 TK

TK 2014 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'46'' ed. 5 + 2 AP https://vimeo.com/84667643 password: brickstone

“per voce e archi”

Successivo al film SPRING (2012), TK (2014) porta nuovamente al centro della pratica dell'artista l'interesse per il linguaggio del corpo e la sua relazione con il contesto socio-politico di “presenza fisica”.

Il titolo dell'opera “TK” è una descrizione onomatopeica del suono creato sia da una pietra che colpisce il suolo che da denti che si chiudono in un morso. Prendendo avvio da un poema in otto parti (la settima delle quali esclusa dal film stesso, il cui significato narrativo è tuttavia ulteriormente esplorato nella mostra che circonda il film), l'artista costruisce un complesso lavoro polifonico in cui la poesia incontra movimenti, suoni, silenzi, corpi, e durabilità per svelare le idee insite nel lavoro. Diversi temi che costantemente ricorrono nel lavoro sono sviluppati attraverso una narrazione orchestrata meticolosamente, nella quale pausa e silenzio sono importanti al pari della parola pronunciata o scritta. Il poema stesso descrive varie immagini, iniziando come una canzone mattutina nella quale una domanda di una routine e di una rotazione accende il motore per l'opera per andare verso un più complesso linguaggio figurato. Persone si radunano in pericolose costellazioni per agire con violenza, per osservare in silenzio, o per mettere in piedi il falso sentimento della tranquillità che è costantemente rovesciato dai vari meccanismi del film stesso. Cose pesanti si bloccano nella gola, pietre usate come strumenti e voci arrivano all'inquietudine.

Due tipi di scene entrano in collisione. Il primo segue le mani di un uomo anziano che soffre di Parkinson, che inizia alcuni versi centrali del poema in forma scritta. Ogni volta, dopo che il verso è stato fissato su carta dalla sua mano tremante, subentra la seconda serie di immagini. Lì la camera segue un gruppo di giovani uomini che resistono al rigido inverno, scoperti e nudi. Muscoli, pelle e membra tremanti nei loro tentativi di rimanere tranquilli mentre la camera lentamente osserva come facilmente le cose vanno in pezzi, la calma che va in rovina e i corpi sono lasciati con un minimo controllo. È esattamente questa idea di perdere lentamente il controllo che accresce il significato politico dell'intero lavoro. Ogni scena accoglie ulteriormente una parte del poema pronunciato in correlazione con il tremito, trasformando così i corpi sullo schermo in contenitori per poesia, suoni, voci e significati. Ancora, anche un altro meccanismo attraversa il film. Una componente musicale che appare per lo più nelle scene invernali, che contengono una partitura precisa composta per un gruppo di archi. Essa è in ogni caso distante da una tipica musica per archi. La tecnica impiegata qui è stata influenzata allo stesso tempo anche dalle idee di tremito e frizione. Il suonare le corde adattando l'arco alle varie pressioni, e in particolare riuscendo a massimizzare la pressione nel punto dove, muovendo l'arco in modo frenetico e rapido, farà sì che le corde si riscaldino. Suoni che tremolano sulla superficie, ma anche tra tono puro e armonia, tra tono e rumore, agiscono come un meccanismo “riscaldante”, un tentativo di installare un fuoco tra i versi e il tremolio, un tentativo di incendiare le cose dall'interno del film stesso.

“for voice and strings”

Following up the artist’s film SPRING (2012), TK (2014) brings the interest for the language of body and its relation to the socio political context of “physical presence” back in the center of the artists practice. The title of the work “TK”, is an onomatopoeic description of the sound made either by stone hitting the ground or by teeth closing in bite. Departing form an eight part poem (part seven being excluded form a film itself, however its narrative significance is further explored in the exhibition surrounding the film), the artist constructs a complex polyphonic work in which poetry meets movements, sounds, silences, bodies, and endurability in order to project the ideas behind the work. Several topics constantly reoccurring through out the work are brought forward by a meticulously scored narration, in which pause and silence are equally important as the spoken or written word. Poem itself depicts on various images, starting as a morning song in which a question of a routine and a rotation turns the engine on for work to move towards more difficult imagery. People gather in dangerous constellations to act in violence, to observe silently, or to setup the false feeling of tranquillity which is constantly turned upside down by the various mechanisms of the film itself. Heavy things get stuck in the throat, stones used as tools and voices come to unrest.

Two types of scenes collide together. First one follows the hands on an old man who suffers from a Parkinson, ini- tiating a core lines of the poem in a written form. Each time after the line has been set on paper by his shaky hand, second set of images takes over. There, the camera follows a group of young men enduring the harsh winter, bare and naked. Shivering muscles, skin and limbs in their attempts to remain tranquil while the camera slowly observes how easily things fall apart, calmness decaying and bodies are left with a very little control. It is exactly this idea of slowly loosing the control that adds to the political significance of the whole work. Each scene further hosts a part of a poem spoken in correlation to the shivering, hence turning the bodies on the screen into a vessel for poem, sounds, voices and meanings. TK

'K 2014 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'46'

TK 2014 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'46' TK

TK 2014 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'46'' TK Poems / 2013-2014

In morning we praise the Sun In the name of... the rotation and the return In the name of... “honey, did you put the sweetener in my coffee” “I never drink my coffee black and bitter” “honey, it is bitter” The world is black and bitter, but about to be stirred with a spoon In the name of the returnable Sun And the metal spoon that clings until the evening returns.

Withdrawn... as the glow of two red rubies blinking in the deep.

Numb and silent Numb and silent Together we step into the cold day where the core is chilled and the frostbitten tongue pushing the fumes through the cool blue lips. the shivering word is spoken

(In Tranquillity the word is shivering Tranquillity is the shivering word)

Shivering warm white,

The word of kindness in these cold times The dim of transparent features, shape-shifting, the empty one, that is not returning like a returnable Sun, The word that once out there assumes its lasting place among the warm white fumes. dissolving in ears over and over again. Repercussive but heard not. TK Poems / 2013-2014

3 and the next wave slips it Numb and Silent, back to the sea floor Numb and Silent, in the same slow fall Gathered around, we are Burden is stuck in the throat Of a reasonable distance Attempt to spit To stone the stone, numb and silent. what is stuck Mouths kept shut, Attempt to cough out in heavy grip what separates saying and hands hold lips cold swallowing, said in blood and inside are teeth and keep your mouths shut! chattering in tranquillity Stuck voices, leftovers, where silence is a virtue half-eaten-half-deserted Tranquillity is an empty space other voices, bloody voices between fingers quiet voices at Sunset But here This is where we met there are no fingers We met and where there are no fingers, in love heads are turning to kiss like an answer into a question with teeth Is it? ...and knives Is it stuck? Curved Why is it stuck? With heavy virtues, Why is it? To dance Is it? naked The crystal, heavy and black around the dark does not reflect the sorrow back crystal 4 That never looked back Burden is stuck in the throat We danced like a starfish on the sea floor naked five fingers to climb up the deep all night long advancing Bodies gradually that flicker for ages around the pyre to reach a shore, Protecting, penetrating, purifying, and there Unbelievable gestures, the Sun dries it in instant all night long. TK Poems / 2013-2014

5 7 Numb and Silent let me see, what In Tranquillity each stone has a purpose each has a lurks under the tree with no shadow purposed size, behind it. volume, mass, determination and every size is A deaf mouse perhaps? political. Numb and silent, there might be A blind Tear-stone Spit-stone owl on that tree. Candy-stone Pale and either with no shadow all wrapped in nice paper But its ears turned toward the sound And Useless stone too small to be called a stone Silent-stone the whisper without the lips That carries standing over the dead grass Thrown-stone understanding that call both flat and crisp: A deaf mouse! A deaf mouse! Where? The circle meets at the top The Sun broke The Owl asked, but Not a fraction of his teeth tone there is against the stars. Just give it The mob back to its source Back to the quiet all dressed up beginning Thinks the hungry owl in battleship grey no makeup, And I’ll feed myself with force Until rumble as they go: quiet again. No ringing Bring me a brick Bring me a brick Bring me a brick This is not a 6 rehearsal This is not a rehearsal Then This is not a rehearsal for a piss in the wind This is The picture was taken where the This is mountain ridges surround the This is the unrehearsed run: a spontaneous piss We are resort We are Troublemakers At the relaxed side The we are picture was taken Of the red and troublemakers are unpredictable. Sky descending One man said to another: no gunfire is heard it is hard to hear anything the mountain is too high. I keep the future in the freezer preserved in the shape of ice cubes until the first hot day I’ll keep it there. No gunfire heard. The sunset was great. The picture was taken of an ice cube melting. TK SCORES

Untitled 2013 collage cm 70,6 x 104 TK SCORES

Untitled 2014 collage cm 64 x 94 TK SCORES

Untitled 2014 collage cm 53 x 73 TK SCORES

TK SCORES

TK (pause scores) 2014 stampe su carta, 8 elementi / prints on paper, 8 element cm 48 x 33 ognuno / (each) SPRING

Spring 2012 4k riversato su full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'58'' ed. 5 + 2 AP https://vimeo.com/48188252 password: stromboli

"quattro composizioni poetiche per una voce e vari suoni"

SPRING è una raccolta di versi poetici, note musicali e una struttura cinematografica, che esplora le nozioni di oppressione e resistenza.

Il titolo SPRING (primavera) non fa riferimento alla stagione, anche se non ne esclude totalmente la nozione. Come pure non eclude altre accezioni quali il dispositivo meccanico della molla (che il termine inglese spring traduce), la Primavera come movimento politico, l'essere liberati da una restrizione o ancora la nascita; piuttosto si stabilisce tra tutti questi significati.

Il film segue la lettura di quattro testi poetici, ognuno riguardante un tema differente, eppure coinvolti insieme dal loro complesso sistema di significati. La lettura dei versi poetici conduce verso un tema portante di Spring: le parole possono seriamente essere fraintese, trasferendo il potere del loro significato verso significati "altri". Filmate all'interno di un set a mo' di scatola nera, le scene seguono contrazioni, torsioni, equilibri e pericoli nell'ambito dei movimenti del corpo umano. Non si tratta di coreografia, nè di danza. Riguarda, bensì, la voce umana e la sua proiezione all'interno dei corpi, che in qualche modo diventano alieni, esterni alla voce stessa. Bisogna immaginare che la voce non appartenga più alla sfera umana, come se fosse fuggita dall'apparato vocale e dalla bocca, per scorrere attraverso lo spazio fisico, da angolo ad angolo. E lì essa trova corpi contratti, gambe precariamente in equilibrio su una corda, braccia che si sostituiscono alle gambe e si aggrappano al suolo. Si vede, poi una bocca completamente spalancata, da cui compare una luce. È l'immagine di un performer che estrae dalla propria gola una luce al neon.

Ogni testo poetico è periodicamente interrotto da scene apparentemente slegate di un paesaggio vulcanico. Ma ogni volta che il vulcano riappare nel film è accompagnato da un diverso paesaggio sonoro: dal silenzio al fragore al linguaggio.

SPRING è stato commissionato dal Palais de Tokyo in occasione della mostra personale "The Kindom of Glottis" (2012).

“four poems for a voice and various sounds”

SPRING is a collection of poetry, musical scores and a cinematic structure, exploring the notions of oppression and resistance. The title SPRING doesn’t mean Spring-time, however it doesn’t exclude itself from a notion of a Spring- time. It also doesn’t exclude itself from a meanings such are Spring-the mechanical device, Spring-the political movement, Spring-the release from a constrained position, Spring-to come into being; rather it establishes itself between all those meanings.

Film follows the reading of four poems, each dwelling on a different subject, yet entangled together by their complex system of meanings. Reading of the poems itself propels another major mechanism of the SPRING: words dan- gerously leaning towards incomprehension, while retaining the power of their meaning by “other” means. Filmed in a black box-constructed set, scenes follow contractions, twisting, balancing and dangers in the movements of a human body. It is not about dance or choreography. It is about human voice that projects itself onto bodies, which are in some way alien, external to the voice itself. Imagine the voice that doesn’t belong to a human anymore, as if it has escaped the vocal apparatus and mouth of its owner and now, it slides through the corners of space. There, it finds contracted bodies, legs precariously balancing on the rope, hands instead of legs grappling the ground. It also finds a wide-open mouth from where a light appears. It is an image of a performer pulling the neon tube out of his throat.

Further, each poem is interrupted by a seemingly unrelated scene of a volcanic landscape. But each time the volcano reappears throughout the film it utters a different acoustic landscape: from silence to roars to language.

SPRING is commissioned by Palais de Tokyo for my solo exhibition “The Kingdom of Glottis” at Palais de Tokyo (2012). SPRING

Spring 2012 4k riversato su full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'58'' SPRING

Spring 2012 4k riversato su full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'58'' SPRING poems / 2012

Frost (!) Welcome (!) cracks and ruptures Welcome (!) what is under your weight, That hidden shape of oppression (Did you know That has been ringing persistently?)

If you could just melt away But no, You grapple us all Glazing with sharp and sparkling fear Our trembling bones (Our ringing too)

But trembling is ringing Of subversive kind PushPushPushing upwards From the inside out, Crescending Towards the black ice, transparency

And when it finally breaks through your persistence, This ringing spring, This Fearless-Unstoppable-Free of everything but its own stream: Clear Resonance It will be like an unreal feeling. SPRING poems / 2012

To make a puppet that speaks, Ask Blow more and more (more fiercely!) the Butcher for a Pigs Pluck Be precise: This balloon, this flesh, this monstrous collection of for lungs and windpipe veins, of air, of expanded caves, of emptiness, of To still be attached something else too: Vibrant in tension and on the edge of bursting - feigning life And look for the larynx there - yet completely on the other side, on (Or the butcher may know it as a Weez-end) If it’s the table where You made it, missing, ask for the Goats throat You hold it, You know what it is for! Now Ah nature (It’s as human as it gets) let it speak, release the pressure, Let the windpipe break the clinch!!! Pierce a small entrance in the windpipe, Then get the tube and gently, gently, make it down Ooooooooooooo it roars It the frail honeycombs Until it sets itself inside: roars in all directions, at the bottom of Collapse Uttering primal consistency: Of Mushrooms, of darkness, of rattling sounds Of Squeeze the windpipe, countless births, extinctions and rebirths, Of first Then inhale: packing your spines, first limbs, first lips lungs, cheeks and other First words - spreading in rage! concealed capacities with air Acoustic monster, that’s what it is! Then blow fiercely Incomprehensible, delicate, ancient, word, Word Into the tube into the thing into the lungs before the words! ooooooooooo That’s what it speaks! As if coming to life, thing will swell Unwrapping towards you All-forgotten scales of life- -Light-pink-bloodless-grey-echoes- of what once were the moves relying only on impulses. SPRING poems / 2012

III

Then came on the upper lip on the upper teeth, on the edge of the teeth on the inner surface of the teeth on the gum line just behind the teeth, to the back of the ridge on the hard palate on the roof of the mouth on the soft palate further back on the roof of the mouth and on the uvula hanging down the entrance of the throat my throat the throat itself the epiglottis the flap the windpipe the pink soft wet skin of the lower lip in front of the tongue by the tongue just behind the tip of the tongue on the blade of the tongue the blade of the tongue, the body of the tongue the root of the tongue in the throat my throat the throat itself the entrance the glottis SPRING poems / 2012

Every now and then an era You whip the dark reaching starts to ring. for the door but a swarm of words fills the entire room. Bumping of each other, It’s a little white noise. A ringing in your ears, In noise, unaligned, stinging. Where is annoying tiny buzz, my escape route? (Reason Will Bubble a mosquito, zooming in Or and out. Ah what a disillusion! When you Freeze Many finally get out, there’s a twisted Strawberry or Half-conscious you landscape. I Shoot smack your skin Hope you Rivers fall, strangely diverted Horse Or got it now - over this rumble as if fighting You String - It will stop buzzing - against - You can go back to sleep. Gold Or the natural currents. Trees But as you drift away I Will Shout Back) melt into the air, Unease erupts: Triggered by and those still waving on winds bend a breeze, A far away car back and forth – imagine as they alarm revels the ringing slither into trans - night. beings not there but somewhere - back and forth, back and forth, po pom Now you struggle not to po pom po pom hear it, and when, out of the blue Behind the landline, where the Alarm bangs into Bang and used to be the view, A brilliant Bang into Bang Bang curve is forming. - into many Bangs, Midnight In a whisper you say hysteria begins! Banging and spelling I had gone through the system and throwing words at you come out on the other side words in eerie rhymes - flaring goosebumps all over your being. As you walk forward The curve swells. Calm your You stand-shake in fear bones and keep a steady confused by this spectacle pace. Trying to poke the words, out Under your feet, of their orbit The ground begins to bloom: To get some meaning wondering in panic: Where Bubble, Gold, Mist, Reason, Strawberry, are my slogans? Revolution, Glass, Blood, Many, Horse, Smoke, Where is the blank piece of paper? Pride Where are the landscapes? Curve, Freeze, Greed, Greed, Greed Step, I, Where is my routine? Why You, String, Back, am I not ready? Will, Rumble, Shoot- Is this a dream? Shoot, Love, Bone, Hyena, Twist Air, Look, Glare, Bang, bang, bang Where Dust are my keys? These are flowers For your slogans: SPRING

Spring 2012 scores

SPRING

Spring 2012 4k riversato su full HD video, sonoro, colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, color 19'58'' UNTITLED

Untitled 2013 collage su fotografia / collage (archival paper on photograph) 49 x 50 x 3 cm ( incorniciata / framed) WE SAW NOTHING BUT THE UNIFORM BLUE OF THE SKY

We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the sky 2012 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, b/n e colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, bw and color 12' ed. 5 + 2 AP http://vimeo.com/35315806 password: sirens

“sirens for voices and sound”

“Guardavano i calamari. Non guardavano niente altro. Non videro nulla, non guardarono nulla. Non sapevano come guardare.” (da un servizio della CBS in cui gli “Zingari del mare” spiegarono come riuscirono a sopravvivere allo tsunami del 2004, a differenza dei barcaioli birmani).

L'uomo che legge è fortemente affetto da una disfunzione nel parlare: la balbuzie, che fa sì che legga compiendo un incredibile sforzo. Questo sforzo di pronuncia di parole e frasi (ripetute in modo estenuante per settimane) non solo diventa la principale cornice concettuale ed estetica dell'intero video, ma enfatizza anche l'aspetto acustico delle parole, oltre che il loro significato: il peso poetico e politico della vocalizzazione della parola. In più, il film è diviso in due sezioni separate: scene in bianco e nero che seguono diversi personaggi ed eventi apparentemente non collegati tra loro su una spiaggia, come cani che giocano, persone che camminano e altre che praticano il kitesurf; mentre le scene “gialle” (risultato dell'uso delle luci al sodio bassa pressione al posto dei comuni fari da scena) descrivono l’interazione più astratta di tre metodi di segnalazione: luce, fumo e suoni. Le scene “gialle” richiamano l’aspetto visivo ed acustico delle sirene, precisamente composto per strumenti a fiato (suonati soffiando in maniera forte e costante piuttosto che producendo suoni chiari) ed elettronici, riflettendo le strutture e i testi dello “sforzo” vocale.

"They were looking at the squid. They were not looking at anything. They saw nothing, they looked at nothing. They don't know how to look." (Sea Gypsy explaining to CBS reporter how come his people survived the 2004 tsunami and Burmese boatmen did not.)

The man whose reading has been severely affected by the fact he has a speaking dysfunction: stammering, delivers the poem with an extraordinary effort. His effort of pronouncing words and sentences (exhaustingly rehearsed for weeks) not only provide the main conceptual and esthetical frame for the whole work, but also emphasizes the acoustics of words and their meaning: to say poetical and political weight of the vocalized word. Furthermore, film has been divided into two separate sections: black and white scenes that follow seemingly unrelated characters and events on the beach, like playful dogs, people walking, or kite surfing; while the “yellow” scenes (result of the use of the low pressure sodium lights instead the standard film lights) depict the more abstract interplay of three methods of signaling: light, smoke and sounds. “Yellow” scenes therefore hold the visual and acoustic sirens, precisely composed for the group of woodwinds (played by over-blowing the air rather then producing clear tones) and electronics, reflecting the structures and textures of the vocal “effort”. WE SAW NOTHING BUT THE UNIFORM BLUE OF THE SKY

We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the sky 2012 4k riversato in full HD video, sonoro, b/n e colore / 4k transferred to full HD video, sound, bw and color 12' WE SAW NOTHING BUT THE UNIFORM BLUE OF THE SKY

(untitled) First it comes to you as many single deep breaths, then shapes begin to appear Step by step, the shadows are descending in an ever deeper abyss, with each stride echoed by the glimpse of light a space between as vast as possible Glow... Before a fully unfolded shadow takes a definite shape, Before cicadas fall silent, Before collapse, the glow is beautiful and then It is as if one voice – or one polyphonic being – or one is moving chord by chord by chord by chord by chord through the entire space and then one by one by one by one by one by one by one all wordless, try to raise above the drone, to acquire wings to whisper emergent melodies to exhale to completed flights and in respiratory heavens to levitate to inhale to inhale to inhale again piercing the air unbearably and in octave leaps As if the sudden stir of air and hope in their lungs could spare them from the endless unknown, grinding deep below them Epiphany Two men, (two forgotten castaways) came out of nowhere They spoke to each other about... We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky Poem / 2011 ... Unusual sunsets Animals in panic Tourists mesmerized by the crystalline moment of the unforgettable succession, and how the sea receded and the shore flooded horizon Uniform blue and one, one imperceptible wave whispered through the world in different pitch and how suddenly, everything rose up, groaning Boats were thrown up in the air and about... timbre of the Earth and of those whose gaze was drowned by the luminescent squid in unbelievable violence Damir Očko (2011) WE SAW NOTHING BUT THE UNIFORM BLUE OF THE SKY, SCORES

We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, Scores 2012 collage 34 x 26 cm (ognuno / each)

We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, Study collage #3 2012 dittico, fotocollage / diptych, photocollage 34 x 26 cm (ognuno / each) We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, Study collage #4 2012 dittico, fotocollage / diptych, photocollage 34 x 26 cm (ognuno / each)

We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, Study collage #2 2012 fotocollage / photocollage 34 x 49 cm THE MOON SHALL NEVER TAKE MY VOICE

The moon shall never take my voice 2010 HD video, sonoro, colore / HD video, sound, color 19’16” ed. 5 + 2 AP http://www.vimeo.com/11185544 password: silence2

“Three songs for a muted voice and various sounds”

Most recent film The Moon shall never take my Voice, observes a woman performing several acts in sign language, revealing a distinctive, alterior form of music. The imaginative composition of both sound and noise alters conventional conceptions of hearing as the narrator gradually reveals a story about Gustav Mahler, John Cage and Neil Armstrong. First song unfolds the event that took place in NYC in the year 1910, a funeral march for a chief of the NYC fire-brigade. Gustav Mahler, an Austrian composer observed the procession passing by his hotel room. He noticed that the disturbing rhythm of the Grand Military Drum had a prolonged interval of silence in between each stroke. Later he used this intervals of the silence in his unfinished tenth symphony, reveling the incredible power of absence as musical mechanism. Second song describes the day when John Cage visited Harvard University un-echoing chamber. After experiencing the room Cage realized that the noise of his own body makes it difficult to grasp the concept of silence, and composed 4’33”. Third and the final song is about the Astronaut. When Neil Armstrong spoke his famous sentence (one small step for (a) man..) unintentionally, he made a mistake slipping out the vocal “a” which had to be pronounced in front of the word “man”, thus changing the meaning of the whole sentence. The fact that the moon has no air, and no sound can ever exist on the moon, makes it the only silent place ever visited by man. What unfolds is a fiction tale composed of fragments from the interviews given on different occasions by Neil Armstrong and a projection of the imagined sound describing the image of the whole universe visible from the moon.

“Three songs for a muted voice and various sounds”

The moon shall never take my voice 2010 HD video, sonoro, colore / HD video, sound, color 19’16”

The moon shall never take my voice 2010 HD video, sonoro, colore / HD video, sound, color 19’16” The Moon shall never take my Voice Poems (combined poems by Damir Ocko, Neil Armstrong, John Cage and Gustav Mahler) / 2010

The Day is Fine

It was a Sunday morning when a stroke woke me up.

Sound was distant and at first I was not sure what it is.

While I was approaching my hotel room window to take a look on the street below another

blow has stroked.

This time it was closer.

From my window I could see a procession approaching in a slow motion.

On the head of the group dressed in a shiny golden uniform there was a man pushing the

large drum.

He was counting the steps and I could see in this moment, he raised the drum stick and

stroked the drum with all his force.

This blow was even closer, and I could feel how my room trembles.

Deep in my stomach something moved and with the every next blow it was closer to my

mouth.

A tune on the flute finally came through my mouth.

The procession moved away, and blows disappeared in the distance.

Flute, faded away.

I was left by myself in the hotel room, on that Sunday morning,

It was a quiet

morning.

Schattenhaft

For a long time now, I was looking for a absolute silence.

It was after I got to Boston that I went into the silent chamber at Harvard University.

This was to be the place I was looking for, but in that silent room I heard two sounds:

one high and

one low.

Afterward, I asked the engineer in charge,

'Why, if the room was so silent, I had heard two sounds?'

He said,

'The high one was your nervous system in operation.

The low one was your blood in circulation.

I am trying to describe it now …

It was a tone in which all tones resounded

while at the same time it

contained all the silence.

he Astronaut

As a boy, the legends of the flying machines have been in my memories as long as I can

remember.

They were wonderful flying machines, closest you can come to being a bird.

I remembered this some years later when we were building a rocket to send me on the

surface of the moon.

I remembered this when I was in my rocket, covering my hears from the unbearable noise

made by the rocket engines.

I remembered this when my body could feel no more gravity, and I was floating through theair, not like a bird, more likely like a fish.

Now I am standing on the moon, surrounded by millions of stars.

Moon surface is sparkling in sunlight

It is a brilliant surface.

The horizon seems quite close to me because the curve is so much more pronounced

than on Earth.

It's an interesting place to be...I recommend it.

There is no air on the moon, perhaps this is why it is so quiet.

Nothing is moving.

Even while I am walking it seems I am not moving at all.

I made few steps and then tried to speak.

It seemed that the words were coming, but I could not hear anything.

I tried again.

I said something, but still, I could not hear it.

I speak and speak and speak, but absolutely nothing came out of my mouths.

I will give it one more try.

I decided to pronounce only one vocal.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Nothing.

Everything remained silent.

It seemed that I have lost my voice on the moon.

I lift my head, and I imagine million of voices coming from the million of stars.

Songs and music bursting across the dark black sky, firework of harmonies but noting can

penetrate this moon.

I was standing in the most quiet place in the whole universe.

Surrounded by million singing stars,

Million singing stars.

Million singing stars. THE MOON SHALL NEVER TAKE MY VOICE, SCORES ARTIST BOOK, 2010-2011

Artist Book (The Moon shall never take my Voice) 2010-2011 materiali vari / mixed media 30 x 20 cm 280 pagine / 280 pages THE MOON SHALL NEVER TAKE MY VOICE, SCORES ARTIST BOOK, 2010-2011

Artist Book (The Moon shall never take my Voice) 2010-2011 materiali vari / mixed media 30 x 20 cm 280 pagine / 280 pages THE AGE OF HAPPINESS

The Age of Happiness 2009 video HD / HD video 15'22'' ed. 5 + 2 AP http://www.vimeo.com/3322423 password: happiness

Non ci sarà nessuno spettatore. Saranno tutti partecipanti. Il lavoro richiede persone speciali, artisti speciali e una cultura completamente nuova. Il cast include un'orchestra, un grande coro misto, uno strumento con effetti visivi, ballerini, una processione, incenso e un'articolazione testuale ritmica La cattedrale in cui avrà luogo non sarà fatta di un unico tipo di pietra, ma cambierà continuamente con l'atmosfera e il moto del Mysterium. Questo sarà realizzato con l'aiuto di nebbia e luce, che modificheranno il profilo dell'architettura Alexandar Scriabin 1902

Una componente importante di The Age of Happiness è la mia ricerca sul Mysterium, lavoro incompiuto del compositore russo Scriabin. Questa performance incompiuta di Scriabin si sarebbe dovuta svolgere sull'Himalaya, e le sue intenzioni erano espresse nella frase “non ci sarà nessuno spettatore. Saranno tutti partecipanti”.

Uno degli effetti proposti in questa piece era di trasformare i partecipanti in esseri superiori. Attraverso la realizzazione di The Age of Happiness, il racconto evidenzia il fallimento della visione utopica, analoga alla piatta prospettiva della società di oggi. In “The Age of Happiness” il senso della visione è annullato dai protagonisti e il mondo che abitano è descritto con un unico senso, l'udito. Al termine le illusioni acustiche irrompono e culminano assumendo la forma del dispositivo fantastico che alla fine di “tutto” consuma i protagonisti, l'immagine, la luce, il suono, non lasciando nulla sulla schermo ad eccezione del suono cristallino della composizione per glassarmonica di Mozart dedicata a Franz Mesmer

“There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textural articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the Mysterium. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours.” Alexandar Scriabin 1902

A strong component of The Age of Happiness is my research into Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s incomplete work Mysterium. Scarabin’s unrealized durational performance was to be located in the Himalayas, and his intentions were that “there will be no spectators, all will become participants”.

One of the proposed effects of this piece was to transform participants into higher human beings. Through the realization of The Age of Happiness, narrative highlights the failed utopian vision as comparable to the flat perspective of today’s society. In “the age of happiness” the sense of vision is taken away from protagonists and the world they inhabit has to be described with the only sense left, sense of hearing.Finally, acoustic illusions burst and culminate taking shape of the fantastic device which at the end of “everything” consumes the protagonists, image, light and sound thus leaving nothing in the screen except crystalline sound of Mozart’s composition for Glass Harmonica dedicated to the Franz Mesmer. THE AGE OF HAPPINESS

The Age of Happiness 2009 video HD / HD video 15'22'' THE AGE OF HAPPINESS

The Age of Happiness 2009 video HD / HD video 15'22'' THE AGE OF HAPPINESS, SCORES

Study drawing 2 2008-2009 tecnica mista / mixed media 26,3 x 34,3 cm (incorniciata / framed) THE AGE OF HAPPINESS SCORES (ARTIST BOOK)

Artist Book 2008-2009 tecnica mista / mixed media 280 pag THE BOY WITH A MAGIC HORN

The Boy with a Magic Horn 2007 HD video, sonoro, colore / HD video, sound, color 15'22'' ed. 5 + 2 A.P. http://www.vimeo.com/3526612 password: hospital

“Un grande sogno stava per essere costruito, ma qualcosa accadde mentre ci stavamo svegliando”

L'analogia usata in “The Boy with a Magic Horn” e successivamente in “The Age of Happiness” era che l'“altrove” sia un potenziale inscritto nell'origine, una destinazione al di là del vuoto o, nel caso di “The Boy with a Magic Horn”, il vuoto stesso.

In un periodo di transizione politica, la Croazia si è lasciata alle spalle uno dei suoi più imponenti progetti, l'Ospedale Universitario, che avrebbe dovuto occupare una superficie di quasi 250.000 m2. L'ospedale fu progettato durante gli anni Settanta ed era in fase di costruzione durante gli Ottanta, ma non fu mai completato. Ora l'edificio è bloccato nello spazio e nel tempo, in qualche luogo tra ciò che era, ciò che avrebbe dovuto essere e ciò che è. La visione cinematografica ci conduce in quell'architettura fantasma. Attraverso la trama enigmatica in “The Boy with a Magic Horn” i personaggi svelano un contenuto molto specifico tratto dal “L'anello dei Nibelunghi” ma contemporaneamente essi sono pieni del vuoto che traggono dallo spazio. In tal senso, i loro costumi esistono come un'estensione organica dell'inesistente architettura dell'incompiuto Ospedale Universitario di Zagabria. I protagonisti diventano parte dell'architettura, sovrastruttura oltre il vuoto di una storia di fallimento.

“Great dream was about to be built, but something happened while we were awakening.”

Analogy used in “The Boy with a Magic Horn” and later in “The Age of Happiness” was that “somewhere” is a potential inscribed in the origin, a destination beyond the gap or, in the case of “The Boy with a Magic Horn”, the gap itself.

In a period of the political transition, Croatia has left behind one of its biggest projects, University hospital that would occupy almost 250 000 m2. The Hospital was planed out in the late 70ʼs and was being built through the 80ʼs, but was never finished. Now days the building is stuck in the place and time, somewhere between what it was, what it should be and what it is. Cinematic vision brings us inside the ghost architecture. Through the enigmatic play in ʻThe Boy With a Magic Hornʼ the characters bare very specific content taken from ʻThe Ring of Nibelungʼ but simultaneously they are filled with emptiness which they take over from the space. In that sense, their costumes exist as an organic extension of the nonexistent architecture of the never-finished Zagreb University Hospital. The protagonists become part of the architecture, superstructure above the vacuum of a story of failure.

THE BOY WITH A MAGIC HORN

The Boy with a Magic Horn 2007 HD video, sonoro, colore / HD video, sound, color 15'22'' THE END OF THE WORLD

The End of the World 2007 HD video, sonoro, colore /HD video, sound, color 15'23'' ed. 5 + 2 A.P. http://www.vimeo.com/3527157 password: tirana

Ho cercato di includere questa idea relativa ad un posto che sta cambiando, così ho introdotto i più ovvii motivi e questi erano i colori e la drastica trasformazione di spazi come la piramide che è stata trasformata da simbolo di potere e mausoleo di un eccentrico dittatore in un centro internazionale di cultura. Hoxha ha mantenuto l'Albania in totale isolamento introducendo un sistema di regole bizzarro ad esempio vietando ai cittadini di cambiare residenza, oppure di ascoltare la musica, etc. La piramide rappresenta l'esempio di trasformazione da un estremo ad un altro. Contemporaneamente ho cercato di stabilire una relazione tra il luogo del taboo e il luogo reale. Il luogo del taboo deriva da una vera favola, l'universo geocentrico e le relazioni e i poteri geopolitici. Dall'altro lato c'è Tirana, un posto di cambiamenti. Il luogo ibrido deriva da una costellazione fuori dal reame del contesto politico locale, in cui c'è una brama di auto - esaltazione ma anche la sospensione delle possibilità. Che mi invoca a rappresentare questo posto dove i colori sono come segni di vita sospesi nel buio. Le creature dietro le maschere colorate sono vagabondi che per caso si ritrovano alla Fine del Mondo. Dal momento che la Fine del Mondo è il punto finale, i vagabondi non si possono muovere oltre, quindi cominciano un gioco conivolgendo i potenziali abitanti della Fine del Mondo. La loro posizione riflette le caratteristiche del luogo e questo è il motivo per cui l'altra squadra veste le maschere dell'incertezza. I loro occhi e le loro orecchie sono coperte, quindi l'andamento del gioco è regolato accidentalmente. Giocano al calcio con regole modificate. Ci sono sei vagabondi e dodici giocatori della Fine del Mondo. Dal momento che non possono muoversi, i vagabondi diventano ostacoli nel campo, mentre per l'altra squadra la palla sembra sempre essere altrove. Un gioco così non può avere risultati, né un momento finale. È qualcosa che sarò giocato per sempre.

I tried to encompass this notion of a place that is changing so I introduced the most obvious motives and these were the colors and the drastic conversion of space like the pyramid that transformed itself from a symbol of power and the mausoleum of eccentric dictator to an international center for culture. Hoxha kept Albania in utter isolation and introduced a system of bizarre regulations like the banning the citizens to change their place of residence, listening to music etc. The pyramid represents the example of transformation from one extreme to another. Simultaneously I tried to establish a relationship between the place of taboo and the real place. The ʻtaboo placeʼ derives from a ʻrealʼ fairytale, the Earth-centered universe and geopolitical power relations. On the other side there is Tirana, a place of changes. That hybrid place stems from a constellation outside the realm of local political context, in which there is an urge for selfaccomplishment but also the suspension of possibilities. That provoked me to depict this place where the colors are some kind of signs of life, suspended in the dark.

The creatures behind colored masks are wanderers who by chance find themselves at the End of the World. Since the End of the World is the final point, the wanderers can no longer move, so they start a game by projecting the potential inhabitants of the End of the World. Their projection is actually a reflection of the site and that is why other team wares the masks of suspense. Their eyes and ears are covered, so the course of the game is ruled by accident. They are playing football with somewhat modified rules. There are six wanderers and twelve end of the world players. Since they are motionless, the wanderers become obstacles in the field, while for the other team the ball always seems to be somewhere else. Such a game can have no result and no final point. It is something that is played forever.

THE END OF THE WORLD

The End of the World 2007 HD video, sonoro, colore /HD video, sound, color 15'23'' MOSTRE SELEZIONATE / SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Dicta, 2018, Jeu de Paume, Parigi Dicta, 2018, Jeu de Paume, Parigi Year Out of Shape, 2016, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Napoli Year Out of Shape, 2016, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Napoli Damir Ocko, 2016, DAZIBAO, Montréal, Canada Damir Ocko, 2016, DAZIBAO, Montréal, Canada Studies on Shivering / The Third Degree, 2015, Padiglione Croato, 56a Biennale di Venezia / Pavilion of Croatia at 56th Venice Biennale Studies on Shivering / The Third Degree, 2015, Padiglione Croato, 56a Biennale di Venezia / Pavilion of Croatia at 56th Venice Biennale Studies on Shivering / The Third Degree, 2015, Padiglione Croato, 56a Biennale di Venezia / Pavilion of Croatia at 56th Venice Biennale Studies on Shivering / The Third Degree, 2015, Padiglione Croato, 56a Biennale di Venezia / Pavilion of Croatia at 56th Venice Biennale Studies on Shivering / The Third Degree, 2015, Padiglione Croato, 56a Biennale di Venezia / Pavilion of Croatia at 56th Venice Biennale Studies on Shivering, 2014, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin Studies on Shivering, 2014, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin Studies on Shivering, 2014, KM Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz Studies on Shivering, 2014, KM Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz Studies on Shivering, 2014, KM Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz Studies on Shivering, 2014, KM Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz The Kingdom of Glottis, 2012, Palais de Tokyo The Kingdom of Glottis, 2012, Palais de Tokyo The Kingdom of Glottis, 2012, Palais de Tokyo We saw nothing but the uniform blue of the Sky, 2012, Gallery Tiziana di Caro, Salerno The Age of Happiness, 2010, Gallery Tiziana di Caro, Salerno On Ulterior Scale, 2011, Kunsthalle Duesseldorf On Ulterior Scale, 2011, Kunsthalle Duesseldorf Jedinstvo Hall - 26th Music Biennale, 2011, Zagreb, Croatia Jedinstvo Hall - 26th Music Biennale, 2011, Zagreb, Croatia The Age of Happiness, 2010, Gallery Tiziana di Caro, Salerno The Age of Happiness, 2009, Lothringer13 Kunsthalle Munich The Age of Happiness, 2009, Lothringer13 Kunsthalle Munich The Age of Happiness, 2009, Lothringer13 Kunsthalle Munich The Age of Happiness, 2009, Lothringer13 Kunsthalle Munich The Age of Happiness, 2009, Lothringer13 Kunsthalle Munich Resil(i)ence, 2005, PM gallery, Zagreb Resil(i)ence, 2005, PM gallery, Zagreb