Kiro Urdin – Biography and Self Portrait
- 1945
- Born in Macedonia
- 1969
- Obtained a degree from the Faculty of Law at the Belgrade University
- 1971-73
- Worked as a journalist
- 1972
- Worked as a chiefset designer for the telecasts “You with us too” and “Contact”, dedicated to the music composed by Beethoven, Verdi, Mozart, Chopin and Monteverdi
- 1974
- Studied at the “Academie des Arts Plastiques” in Paris
- 1977
- Obtained a Degree in Film Directing from the ”Academy of Cinema” in Paris
- 1982-83
- Painted the portraits of the participants in the renowned “Soirees Poetiques de Struga” series (Neruda, Montale, Orlov, Okai, Guivellic)
- 1984
- Worked as an independent painter in different countries : France, USA, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Belgium, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Taiwan
- 1984
- Wrote and published the book “Le dedoublement de la personnalite”
- 1987
- Listed in the reference work”Le Dessin, le Pastel et l’Aquarelle of the contemporary arts”, published by Editions Mayer
- 1995
- Represented France at the French Art Festival in Tapei
- 1996
- Illustrated the cover of the book by Jacques Delors “Combats pour l’Europe”
- 1997
- Illustrated the cover of the book by Anatoli Karpov “Mes plus belles victores”
- 1997
- Represented the Republic of Macedonia in Thessaloniki – Culture Capital of Europe ’97
- 1995-97
- Travelled around the world and realized Planetarium as a multimedia project which included paintings, films and photos
- 1998-02
- Wrote 8 books of poetry and aphorisms in French and English
- 2003
- Planetarium became a worldwide ballet performance created by the choreographer Debbie Wilson
- 2005
- Became a member of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2007
- Exhibited at the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Skopje and in Budapest
- 2008
- Represented Macedonia at the Festival de la Francophonie de Moscou in Russia.
- 2009
- Received an invitation by the City of Nuremberg, Germany, to exhibit at the National Gallery.
My earliest knowledge begins with my greatgrandfather, Constantine. I don’t know what my great-grandmother’s name was. They came from Salonica and had fourteen children, twelve of whom died one after the other. The thirteenth was my grandfather, Vasil, and the fourteenth his sister, Tina.
My father was called Michael and my mother Makedonka, as is my daughter. But to begin with myself.
I am average in all things: of average height, of average weight, of average years and the colour of my hair is average. My mother and father were average too. And of course my three brothers and my sister are average.
I wasn’t present at the moment of my birth. Time moved fast then. During the First World War my father was still a child, but even then he had made up his mind that I would be his youngest son. His wish was fulfilled towards the end of the Second World War. It was the month of May and three fortune-tellers told me that the flowers were still smelling of gunpowder. After that moment a good many years passed and peace reigned everywhere. Countries were transformed into flower gardens. There were no more wars, no more dead, wounded, starving… There was no injustice, evil or force. When I completed my studies everybody started to judge me. In order to improve my rating, I started with legal norms, and fell headlong into the loopholes in the law. There they convinced me that life beyond the grave can easily be buried.
Because I had little patience for documents I began to paint them and then to record them on film. This same fact had undesirable consequences that started to multiply. Their number increased so rapidly that there wasn’t room for them all any more. The only way out was to surrender my space to them. The consequences demanded that I should understand their causes. So on average I became a point, so that nobody noticed me any more. Now my destiny depends upon the place where they insert me in their written texts. But if anyone asks me what my wish is, my response is this: because I am a point I don’t want to remain in any one place but to be in perpetual motion.