Artist Statement
Margareta Kern (b 1974, Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina) is a London based artist using photography, video and performance to explore ways in which personal spaces and narratives are influenced by the socio-political movements.
A graduate of Goldsmiths College (1998), Kern has shown her work nationally including the Tate Modern, Impressions Gallery, Djanogly Gallery and Castlefield Gallery, and internationally including the recent solo exhibition at the renowned PM & Bacva gallery in Zagreb, Croatia. Her projects have received support from the Arts Council England, the British Film Institute, the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the City of Zagreb, and most recently she was awarded the photography bursary by the National Media Museum, Bradford, and was an artist-in-residence in Berlin funded by the British Council.
"My works have always negotiated between the outer boundaries of identity, its socio-political context and the inner, subtler workings and needs of the self. I explore a relational way of working, where the site of engagement with the personal narratives, becomes the context within which the process of art making takes place.
In my recent projects I have used clothing and textiles as a way of opening and entering issues linked to gendered constructions of identity and its social, political and cultural contexts.
My experience of migrating from one culture to another, rather abruptly at the beginning of the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, quietly underlines my work and interest in stories that resonate with unresolved questions of place, belonging and home."
CV & Education
Qualifications and training
2010 - MA Southeast European Studies/Anthropology, University College London, London
1998 - BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths' College, University of London, London
Solo exhibitions
2009 - Clothes for Living & Dying, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK
2009 - Clothes for Living & Dying, Kunstverein Worms, Worms, Germany
2009 - Odjeca za zivot i smrt/ Clothes for Living & Dying, Galerija Ruzic - Likovni Salon Becic, Slavonski Brod, Croatia
2008 - Clothes for Living & Dying, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, UK
2008 - Clothes for Living & Dying, PM Gallery & Gallery Bacva, Zagreb, Croatia
2007 - Clothes for Death, Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, Bath
Group exhibitions
2009 - Cities-Methodologies, The Slade School of Art Research Centre, London
2008 - odavde/from here - otuda/from there, Cecile Hunt Gallery, St Louis, USA
2007 - Dislocation of the Gaze/Dislokacija Pogleda, Museum of Contemporary Art, Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina
2007 - International Territories, Arts Picture House , Cambridge, UK
2007 - Make it a Better Place, Holden Gallery, Manchester
2007 - The Lives of Girls and Women , Renoir Cinema, London
2006 - Making Journeys, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham
2006 - Pure Screen 07, Bureau Gallery, Manchester
2005 - 600/60/6/6 , Great Eastern Hotel , London (Bankok/Berlin/Los Angeles/Manila/Saigon)
2005 - KnotWorks, The Blue Elephant Theatre, London
2005 - Necessary Journeys, Tate Modern, London
2005 - When in Rome V, Third Floor Art Centre, Portsmouth
2005 - When in Rome Vl, Midland Art Centre, Birmingham
Live/Performance
2008 - God is the biggest Artist, St Donat Church, Back to Heritage residency, Zadar, Croatia
2008 - Short Hi-story of My Family, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
2008 - Short Hi-story of My Family, Tramway - Performing Rights, NRLA, Glasgow
2007 - Betseys Couture, Betseys Salon, London
2007 - Tailoring/Krojacki Salon, Live Art Development Agency, London
Residencies
2009 - Berlin Residency - Journeys with No Return, British Council, Berlin, Germany
2008 - Utopian Island, Back to Heriitage, Artist initiative, Zadar, Croatia
Competitions, prizes and awards
2009 - Photographic Bursary, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK
2005 - Neccessary Journeys, Arts Council England and BFI, London, UK
