Jimmie Durham (b. 1940, Houston) is an artist whose expansive practice spans sculpture, drawing, collage, photography, video, and performance. He often combines found objects and natural materials and incorporates text to expose Western-centric views and prejudices hidden in language, objects, and institutions. He speaks on the political and cultural forces that construct our contemporary discourses, the status of minorities, oppression and violence. One of Durham's primary motifs is stone, which he uses to crush cars, furniture, or articles of clothing, subverting Western ideal of conquering nature through technology. In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.

For the project, Durham sends us a video from his residence in Naples, where he is currently staying. While he lives in Berlin, the Coronavirus pandemic caught him in Italy where he stayed during this time. He sends us a pleasant greeting of "Dobar dan, prijatelji" (Good day, friends), with memories of his 1970 visit to Zagreb and Croatia.

Naples, 01/06/2020

Artists Respond project was started by the Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde and the Marinko Sudac Collection. Addressing the current global pandemic, the project aims to virtually present the thoughts and attitudes of neo-avant-garde artists, their energy and the message they have for the present moment. This is the moment in which the world as we know it is on hold and the moment in which we need optimism and solidarity more than ever. We wish for the public to welcome the creative energy of these artists - artists who are ready to point out the state of things, to respond with art and creativity, as they have done in all difficult times in the past.