Dante Buu
area: Conceptual Art, Visual Art
Key Facts
nationality
Montenegroarea
Conceptual Art, Visual Artresidence
Rožajerecommending institution
BMEIAtime period
March 2017 - April 2017Dante Buu was born in Rožaje, Montenegro. Rooted in intimacy, his work addresses the brutal sociocultural environment and omnipresent alienation in society through a variety of media. Gender roles, identities, sex and stereotypes set by the mechanisms of power are questioned and deconstructed in order to express intimate quests of resistance and subversion
and how they extend from private to public and beyond. What is ostensibly beautiful, joyous and accessible is stripped down in Dante Buu’s work to expose its flipside so he can examine its implications and how they affect us both individually and collectively.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PROJECTS AND INTERVENTIONS:
2017
Dante Buu, Gallery Duplex100m2, Sarajevo
5th Season, Museum of Literature and Performing Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
2016
Untitled, Public intervention, Berlin
Welcome Mustafa to the Life You Deserve, Public project, Graz
2013
Mama I am OK in the Neon Green, Gallery Duplex100m2, Sarajevo
Neon Green, Public project, Sarajevo
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PROJECTS AND FESTIVALS:
2017
Universal Hospitality 2, Gallery Futura, Prague
Inverting Battlefields, Public project and Exhibition, Sarajevo and Graz
2016
Arrivals/Departures, Gallery Centrum, Graz
photo graz 016, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Graz
Universal Hospitality, Festival “Into the City” – Alte Post, Vienna
Kupujmo domaće, Gallery Duplex100m2, Sarajevo
2015
That’s not my History, < rotor > center for contemporary art, Graz
Biennial of Contemporary Art, Tito’s Bunker – Atomic War Command, Konjic
2014
Future Heritage Collection, Gallery Java, Sarajevo
SUMMERISNOTOVER, Gallery Kortil, Rijeka
In the work “5th Season”, I trace the idea of female labour and its value throughout time as well as the life and death of dowry in Montenegro, with a focus on the region of Sandžak, through the personal stories of the women in my family – my mother, her three sisters and their mother (my grandmother). Along with other handmade objects, a very important element of the dowry were gobelins to decorate the walls of the house that the young bride is moving into. My process has led me to create four unique embroidery pieces, based on Wiehler’s Four Seasons Gobelins, in various dimensions and materials.
At this time, in Montenegro/Balkans, embroidery is seen merely as a part of folklore; the craft is reduced to the simple act of decoration, still predominantly made by women, with a special eye to and care for traditional male clothing.
My focus during the residency stay will be on a research of the practices of women's handicraft in Austrian tradition. How does it relate to the positioning of females in the society? How does it define the female role? How has it been valued by the society?
By gathering all this information and conducting research, in both Austria and Montenegro, I aim towards using this knowledge for writing stories that will capture the history, spirit and value of women's craftwork within society. I seek to transform the research and findings into short stories about female labour and dowry to be accompanied by the images and details of “5th Season” pieces, and published as a book in late 2017.