NYAB Event - Mladen Stilinović "Artist's Books"

Mladen Stilinović "Artist's Books"

This event has ended.
At e-flux
Media: Other, Other

e-flux presents an exhibition of artist books by the Croatian artist Mladen Stilinović, focusing on works produced between 1972 and 2006. In his extensive oeuvre and through various media, Stilinović mirrors and questions the ideological signs that condition a society. Active in former Yugoslavia during the communist regime, in his art he exposed the symbols that were the strongest expressions of ideology at the time. In agreement with the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin's statement that "Language is the ideological sign par excellence," the artist's interest in language remains at the center of his activities. In the mid-1970s, Stilinović's work was often shown in outdoor exhibition actions arranged by the Group of Six Artists, of which Stilinović was a member. His books were later exhibited in galleries, museums, and in the artist's own apartment. Stilinović's early work in poetry and film led to an interest in artist books, which the artist still produces in small handmade editions using simple materials such as photographs, newspaper clippings, and writings in crayon or pencil. They can be seen as a time-based medium forming a kind of dramaturgy, or anti-dramaturgy that escapes a conventional narrative focus: if a story is present, it develops intuitively and in the mind of the reader. An interest in history and time can be found throughout Stilinovic's oeuvre. With a sense of melancholia and subtle humor, his critical position points to the absurdities and rigid structures in society. His position can be seen as one that purposely insists on the freedom of art and its possibility for offering a radically different perspective.