EDIN MUSTAFIC | VIENNA, AT | PORTFOLIO & ARCHIVE

Biography

De­li­be­ra­te­ly losing my­self in space and in life is my me­thod, my state of con­sci­ous­ness: a flâ­neur who­se ac­tu­al state is the de­li­be­ra­te search it­self, what was and al­ways will re­main – a con­se­quent drif­ting away from pre­de­ter­mi­ned paths. It is nei­ther the at­tain­ment of a goal nor the pos­ses­sion of an ul­ti­ma­te mea­ning that dri­ves me, but the per­sis­ten­ce in the in-be­tween. The re­fu­sal to set­tle into bour­ge­ois cer­tain­ties and re­a­dy-ma­de an­swers is not a loss, but ra­di­cal free­dom. It is nei­ther the goal nor the what that dri­ves me – but the open ques­tion of whe­re it will take me.

It is nei­ther the at­tain­ment of a goal nor the pos­ses­sion of an ul­ti­ma­te mea­ning that dri­ves me, but the per­sis­ten­ce in the in-be­tween. The re­fu­sal to set­tle into bour­ge­ois cer­tain­ties and re­a­dy-ma­de an­swers is not a loss, but ra­di­cal free­dom. It is nei­ther the goal nor the what that dri­ves me – but the open ques­tion of whe­re it will take me.

Born: 25.08.1975, Salz­burg

“Mea­ning is a con­struct. Non­sen­se a li­be­ra­ti­on.”

Artist Statement

My ar­tis­tic prac­tice ori­gi­na­tes from my life, my tho­ughts, and a con­ti­nu­ous ob­ser­va­ti­on of the world. It is sel­dom the loud, sc­rea­ming mo­ments I seek, but qu­i­et, con­den­sed sta­tes gui­ded by a con­se­quent mi­ni­ma­lism: I ex­tract sub­jects and mo­tifs from their fa­mi­li­ar phy­si­cal and cul­tu­ral con­text to ex­pe­ri­en­ce them in a de­li­be­ra­te stil­lness and iso­la­ti­on – al­ways in search of a bin­ding “so­me­thing” that con­nects us all at our co­re.

My works and vi­su­al lan­gua­ge are cha­rac­te­ri­zed by par­ti­al­ly re­du­ced black-and-white pho­to­graphs, but al­so by the pur­po­se­ful use of co­lor. I re­act to the­mes that mo­ve me, oc­cu­py my mind, or even re­pel me, whe­ther of a so­ci­al, po­li­ti­cal, or pu­re­ly aes­the­tic na­tu­re. I am in­te­res­ted in vi­su­al ef­fects and ha­bits of per­cep­ti­on: how and why do we re­act to cer­tain vi­su­al signs? 

I want to en­cou­ra­ge vi­ew­ers to crit­i­cal­ly ex­ami­ne and ques­ti­on their own world – to per­pe­tu­al­ly re­dis­co­ver and ex­pe­ri­en­ce them­sel­ves ane­w.

An es­sen­ti­al fo­cus of my work is the ten­si­on bet­ween (un)sharp­ness, re­duc­ti­on, and aes­the­tics. Here, I al­so ex­plo­re the con­cept of beau­ty, which I do not re­gard as an ab­so­lu­te or­der, but as a sub­jec­ti­ve, cul­tu­ral­ly sha­ped va­lue judg­ment that con­ti­nu­ous­ly shifts throug­hout the cen­tu­ri­es of hu­man his­to­ry. A fur­ther sty­lis­tic de­vi­ce on which I pla­ce my fo­cus is the tar­ge­ted de­ploy­ment of blur and un­sharp­ness. In ex­plo­ring the space bet­ween do­cu­men­ta­ry de­tail and the with­dra­wal of ima­ge shar­pness, I li­be­ra­te form from the dic­ta­te of the me­re­ly vi­si­ble: blur chal­len­ges the ima­gi­na­ti­on and ren­ders the ima­ge tan­gi­ble as its own sus­pen­se-fil­led, sen­su­ous re­a­li­ty.

As soon as the two-di­men­si­o­nal spa­ce of the ima­ge is ex­ha­us­ted, my work ur­ges into phy­si­cal space. In ob­ject art and in­stal­la­ti­on, the cor­po­re­al pre­sen­ce of the idea turns into an ir­re­fu­ta­ble fact.

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  • 2024 | JUSTMAD – Contemporary Art Fair | 07.03.–10.03.2024 | Palacio Neptuno, Madrid (ES)
    www.justmad.es
  • 2023 | JUSTMAD – Contemporary Art Fair | 23.02.–26.02.2023 | Palacio Neptuno, Madrid (ES)
    www.justmad.es
  • 2022 | FIABCN 2022 – Contemporary Art Fair | 04.11.–05.11.2022 | MMB (Museu marítim de Barcelona – Sala Gran), (ES)
    www.fiabcn.com
  • 2022 | JUSTMAD (XIII Edition) – Contemporary Art Fair | 24.02.–27.02.2022 | offspace | galerie panoptikum. | Palacio Neptuno, Madrid (ES)
    www.justmad.es
  • 2021 | JUSTMAD – Contemporary Art Fair | 08.07.–11.07.2021 | offspace | galerie panoptikum. | Palacio Neptuno, Madrid (ES)
    www.justmad.es
  • 2020 | ART MADRID – Contemporary Art Fair | 26.02.–01.03.2020 | Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid (ES)
    www.art-madrid.com
  • 2019 | galerie panoptikum. SHOWCASE 2019
    www.galeriepanoptikum.at
  • 2019 | JUSTMAD – Emerging Art Fair | 26.02.–03.03.2019 | offspace | galerie panoptikum. | Palacio Neptuno, Madrid (ES)
    www.justmad.es
  • 2017 + 2018 | galerie panoptikum. SHOWCASE 2017 + 2018
    www.galeriepanoptikum.at
  • 2017 | photo::vienna 2017 (4th edition) | 11.10.–15.10.2017 | MAK – Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst, Stubenring 5, 1030 Wien (AUT)
    www.photovienna.at
  • 2017 | MAF 2017 – Metropolitan Art Fair | 18.05.–21.05.2017 | Gartenpalais Schönborn, Wien (AUT)
    www.maf2017.com
  • 2015 & 2016 | Gruppenausstellungen | Achtzig-Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Hagenauer Str. 7, 10435 Berlin (DE)
    www.dianaachtzig.de

© 2026 Edin Mustafic

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