Vanja Smiljanić

Vanja Smiljanić (Belgrade, Serbia 1986) is a visual and performance artist living and working between Lisbon and Cologne. She concluded the post-master in Artistic research at A.pass, Brussels (2015),  MFA at the Dutch Art Institute (DAI), Arnhem (2012), and Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (2019) and got a degree in Fine Arts at the Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa (2009). In her practice she often utilizes the model of performance-lecture as a way to bridge fictitious and experiential universes, comprising technical apparatus, diagrams and sci-fi povera sculptures. Connecting otherwise unparalleled reality systems, Vanja's work attests the foundation of ideologies as alienated regimes, recurring to her own body as a vessel for narration, often shifting between the position of oracle and storyteller.

She has shown her work in various festivals and institutions i.e : Kunsthalle Wien, IKOB- Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthaus NRW, HMKV Dortmund,  KAI10–Arthena foundation, Schauspiel Köln, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea Milano, etc.

Learn more about Vanja Smiljanić’s written MA thesis: Fictional Archive as Ministry of IdeologyFictional Archive as Ministry of Ideology.

Learn more about Vanja Smiljanić’s DAI Publication: 'Metal, but at the same time… it's a crystal'

Follow Vanja Smiljanić’s ‘life after DAI’ by means of her website.

In 2019 Vanja returned to DAI in the role of Kitchen respondent. 

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