Two steps ahead

Braco Dimitrijevic

A pioneer of conceptual art, Dimitrijević is known for his artistic intervention into urban landscapes. He studied from 1968 to 1971 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and continued with a Post-graduate work at St Martin’s School of Art in London, obtaining a British Council Grant in 1972. This was followed by a DAAD fellowship in Berlin (1976-7). He received Major Award of the Arts Council of Great Britain (1978) and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in Paris in 1992 and in 2005 A.B.O. d’Oro in Rome. In the early 1980s, the artist started making installations in which wild animals confront artifacts and works of art, thus joining the occidental model and the model offered by other cultures that live in greater harmony with nature. In 1998, the artist realised one - man shows, internationally acclaimed, at Paris Zoo with installations in the wild animals’ cages. The artist gained an international reputation in the seventies with his Casual passer-by series, in which gigantic photo portraits of anonymous people were displayed on prominent facades and billboards in European and American cities. It was in the mid-seventies that he famously started incorporating in his installations original paintings borrowed from museum collections. Over the last 40 years he has exhibited internationally, with solo shows such as at Tate Gallery, Kunsthalle Bern, Museum Ludwig Cologne, MUMOK Vienna. His works are in 80 public collections. He has participated in major group shows such as the Kassel Documenta 5. Documenta 6, Documenta 9, 5 times at the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Biennale, Sydney Biennale, as well as Santa Fe Biennale, Havana Biennale, Kwangju Biennale, Moscow Biennale. Braco Dimitrijevic lives and works in Paris, France.