Mladen Stilinović (HR)

Artist at Work Again
color photos
30 x 40 cm

Čujem da se govori o smrti … / I Hear There’s Talk of Death…
hand writing on silk
21 x 29 cm

Srebrenica
color photos
30 x 40 cm

Početnica 1, 2, 3 / Primer 1, 2, 3
Experimental films and videos
1971–2006
– DVD Croatian film Association, 2012 

The list of Films is at the end of text *

Mladen Stilinović was a Croatian post-conceptual artist and one of the leading figures of the so-called “New Art Practice” in Croatia, whose body of work was founded on critical thinking about art and society, and about individual categories like pain, or laziness, which he transports into the wider social context. Apart from his critique of the art system, he was just as critical, cynical, ironical, witty, without clichés, often emotional and sometimes borderline-absurd in commenting on the reality of our society, with a particular focus on the “reflection of politics, and not its practice”.

Continuing in the tradition of avant-garde art, Mladen Stilinović advocates a social dimension of art, promoting art as a means of social critique, with overt cynicism as a specific form of self-distance. At the beginning of his artistic endeavors he created cardboard “picture” words, pamphlets and paroles, symbolizing the “paper-thin” and ephemeral nature of all higher goal speeches and the like, creating throughout his career a “poor” art founded on little pieces of paper, brainwave moments, word plays, witty quotations, etc. – for a seemingly simple reason: “I never had a studio, I am a self-educated painter, not a trained one. Conceptual art is tightly linked to such an approach, which I find close to me. I like this kind of mental situation, whereby art is created on an ordinary, standard-size piece of paper. Apart from paper, I often re-use other “household materials” like cartons, newspapers, cloths and everyday objects. In this way I don’t have to depend on anyone. I’m horrified at the idea of monumental art, especially in sculpture. My own larger-sized works are created by accumulating the smaller ones.”                  

Mladen Stilinović (born April 10, 1947, Belgrade, Serbia – died July 18, 2016, Pula, Croatia) lived and worked in Zagreb and Rovinj, Croatia. His artistic range includes collages, photographs, artists' books, paintings, installations, actions, films and video works. A constant feature of his artistic expression is the use of everyday, functional, “poor” materials, coupled with a simple, yet thought-out realization, and a controversy of the used symbols. 
He was a member of the Group of Six Artists (Grupa šestorice autora), together with Vladimir Martek, Boris Demur, Željko Jerman, Sven Stilinović and Fedomir Vučemilović,
and one of the co-founders of the Podroom Gallery (1978–1980). Between 1981 and 1991 he was director of the Extended Media Gallery in Zagreb. From 1969 to 1976 he was dedicated to experimental film.

His works have been showcased at some of the most important art manifestations around the world, such as documenta in Kassel (Germany, 2007). In the same year, he was presented at the MMC KIBLA with a solo exhibition Vrijeđanje anarhije / Insulting Anarchy:

http://www.kibla.org/dejavnosti/kibela/arhiv/kibela-arhiv/2007/mladen-stilinovic/?0=

His works belong to many prominent museum and gallery collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Musée national d'Art moderne (Centre Georges Pompidou) in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and museums of modern art collections in Stockholm, Vienna, Ljubljana, and Zagreb.

https://mladenstilinovic.com/bio/

*List of Films:

Panika
Panika  / Panic
1971
16 mm, b/w, 5' 32''

Piši ne samoće
Piši o ne-osamljenosti  / Write About Un-Loneliness
1973
16 mm, negative, 3' 55''

Bježi
Beži  Run / Away
1973
8 mm, b/w, 7'

Početnica 1, 2, 3
Čitanka 1, 2, 3  / Primer 1, 2, 3
1973
16 mm, b/w, 5' 28''

Soba u Veneciji
Soba v Benetkah  / A Room in Venice
1974
8 mm, color, 3' 39''

Pokreti prema
Premiki proti  / Movements Towards
1975
16 mm, b/w, 10' 33''

Zidovi, kaputi, sjene
Zidovi, plašči, sence  / Walls, Coats, Shadows
1975
8 mm, color, 6' 47''

Za Dürera
Za Dürerja  / For Dürer
1976
8 mm, b/w, 3' 37''

Vrijeme 1
Čas 1  / Time 1
1977
16 mm, b/w, 6' 58''

Vrijeme 2
Čas 2  / Time 2
1977
16 mm, b/w, 2' 40''

Krumpira, krumpira
Krompir, krompir  / Potatoes, potatoes
2001
video, color, 4' 11''

Veliki šov  / Great show
2006
video, color, 1'