Daria Kim is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, sculpture, video, installation, sound, painting, and drawing, rooted in material experimentation, embodied memory, and diasporic histories. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she now lives and works in Berlin.
Trained initially in painting in Uzbekistan, Daria continues to work habitually with charcoal and watercolour. In the field of sculpture, however, it is essential for her to move away from familiar methods of engaging with material. She works with wax, jelly, plasticine, and, for example in Hive Settlers, she developed a clay-like substance made from rice flour. Her interaction with wax is likewise unconventional and concept-driven, as are her bodily and time-based processes. The beauty of a concept forms the foundation of her practice, while her practical experience inspires her interests to expand into diverse areas, including the effects of slowing down inefficient processes and exploring the nature of anxiety.
Daria has exhibited and performed internationally, including at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2024); documenta fifteen, Kassel, as a member of the Davra collective initiated by Saodat Ismailova (2022); and the Bukhara Biennial, Uzbekistan (2025). Currently enrolled at Berlin University of the Arts, Daria has been a member of the DAVRA collective since 2021.
Education
2021 -...
Berlin University of the Arts
Berlin, Germany
[Master of Fine Arts (expected 2026)]
Class: Prof. David Schutter
2018-2019
National Institute of Arts and Design
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
[One year of studies in easel painting]
2013-2016
Republic Art College
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
[Professional art education in easel and monumental painting]
Selected exhibitions, screenings
2025
The Flow, Three Highgate Gallery, London, UK
Addendum, Kleiner Wasserspeicher, Berlin, Germany
Recipes for Broken Hearts, Bukhara Biennial, Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Rundgang 2025, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany
Those Without a Share, Kunstraum Potsdamer Strasse, Berlin, Germany
2024
Symposia, Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany
You Are Here, Fondazione Elpis, Milan, Italy
Fußnoten, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin, Germany
Rundgang 2024, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany
Her Gaze: moving image from Central Asia, Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg, Netherlands; moc hub, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; bULt, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Mirzoyan library, Yerevan, Armenia; Monee Art Gallery, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Amando Cinema, Warsaw, Poland
Napping in Density, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2023
Rundgang 2023, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany
2022
documenta15 (as a member of DAVRA collective), Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Rundgang 2022, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany
2018
World Korean Grand Art Festival, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
2017
Memory, Central Exhibition Hall of the Academy of Arts, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Korea - Uzbekistan Fine Art Exchange Exhibition, Tashkent House of Photography, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2015
Fine Arts Week, Ikuo Hirayama International Caravanserai of Culture, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Mentions:
https://www.ostjournal.de/05-chilltan/
https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/event/geschichten-zur-geschichte-re-vision-und-re-aktion/
https://adamdar.ca/post/saodat-ismailova-davra-i-40-dney-tsentral-noy-azii-na-documenta-15/292
https://daz.asia/blog/usbekische-kuenstlerin-saodat-ismailova-auf-der-documenta-15/
https://documenta-fifteen.de/kalender/the-other-skin/
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artist-list-documenta-15-2130911?amp=1
https://mydecor.ru/news-art/pervaya-biennale-sovremennogo-iskusstva-v-bukhare-obzor-ot-emilii-manvelyan/
Publications:
2022
Chilltan
A compilation of images and words responding to syncretic female spirits rooted on shamanic, zoroastrian, buddhist and muslim beliefs.
A book compiled by DAVRA research group for documenta 15, 2022
Pages: 1, 62, 63, 74, 75, 104, 105, 124, 125, 178, 182-185
documenta fifteen HANDBOOK
An essential guide for visitors to documenta fifteen in Kassel, as envisioned by the collective ruangrupa and their collaborators
Pages: 182,183
2024
Napping in Density
Created within the teaching collaboration “Stories on History” between UdK and KW
Pages: 39, 43, 73, 76
2025
You are here. Central Asia
Produced by Fondazione Elpis
Pages: 95, 106, 107
Recipes for broken hearts. Bukhara Biennial Guidebook
Produced by Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation
Pages: 74, 75, 197