Darja Bajagić ‘14 MFA is one of 9 Yale alumni artists featured in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Her exhibit, It Takes an Island to Feel This Good, is included in Montenegro’s national pavilion, which you can find at Ospedaletto, Castello 6691 (Barbaria delle Tole).
In an interview with ArtReview on the exhibit, Bajagić has said
My exhibition … presents a critical consideration of the culture of collective memory and our relationship to shared historical heritage. I reflect upon these topics through painting and sculpture, focusing on the complex and multidimensional history of the Montenegrin island of Mamula. Its fort, built in 1853 by the Austro-Hungarian general Lazar Mamula, was converted into a concentration camp by the fascist forces of Benito Mussolini’s Kingdom of Italy during the Second World War; and was revitalised with the assistance of foreign investments as a luxury hotel beginning in 2016.
The title, It Takes an Island to Feel This Good, was, in fact, lifted from the hotel’s website – it is their slogan.
For more from this ArtReview interview, see here.
Photo Credit: Marijana Janković.