Danica Dakic, El Dorado(2007), interview at Documenta 12

Danica Dakic examines the cultural, personal and political aspects of language and identity. From her own experience as a migrant, she was born in Sarajevo and now lives in Düsseldorf, Danica Dakic deals with construction of identity and belonging through social change, the process of globalization and war.

In El Dorado, a media installation created for DOCUMENTA 12, Dakic uses a panoramic wallpaper “El Dorado” from 1848, which depicts a utopian dream and undiscovered paradise as a backdrop. Dakic worked with migrant teenagers who shared their ideas about what paradise means for them.

In this video, we interview the artist and show the performance, which includes a sound installation with the voices of the teenagers at the Wallpaper Museum. The work also includes a video and a photographic group portrait exhibited in Schloss Wilhelmshöhe.