May 12, 2014
Ana Janevski will introduce Mladen Stilinović’s experimental films from the 1970s, when the artist began producing his films in the so-called amateur cine-clubs of Zagreb. An autodidact in every field, he was able to move from one medium to another with a certain grace and liberty, and to employ various techniques simultaneously. Stilinović’s films have a revelatory effect, as they disclose his early curiosity and fascination with many different subjects that are also present in the collages and art books he was making at the time: city milieus, handwriting, street signs, drawings, visual poetry, and textual interpolation.
The presentation and screening will explore the phenomena of amateur (unconventional, experimental, underground, alternative—all the denominations are legitimate) film developed in the cine clubs in the ’60s in former Yugoslavia, and the connection and mutual permeation between experiments in amateur cinematic art and the avant-garde art of the ’60s and ‘70s. The marginalized position of cine-clubs as peripheral and undemanding centers emphasized the creative freedom providing the avant-garde scene with almost subversive work for socialist content of the time.
As part of the evening, works by Tomislav Gotovac, Zelimir Zilnik, Karpo Godina, and others will also be screened.
Mladen Stilinović was born in 1947 in Belgrade and lives in Zagreb. From 1969–76 he worked with experimental film. He was a member of the Group of Six Artists (1975–79) and also ran the PM Gallery in Zagreb from 1982–91. His works include collages, photographs, artist books, paintings, installations, actions, films, and video. Stilinović has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows worldwide since 1975. In 2011 he had a retrospective show at Ludwig Museum, Budapest. In 2013 he exhibited works at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, as well as the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Ana Janevski is currently Associate Curator in the Department of Media and Performance Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. From 2007 to 2011 she held the position of curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland, where she curated, among many other projects, the large-scale exhibition As Soon As I Open My Eyes I See a Film on the topic of Yugoslav experimental film and art from the 1960s and ’70s. Recently she has organized a performance project for the Donald B. and Cathrine C. Marron Atrium, Musée de la danse: Three Collective Gestures.
For further details, please contact magdalena [at] e-flux.com.