The work of David Maljkovic (Rijeka, Croatia, 1973) focuses on memory and collective amnesia in addition to the possible reconstruction of the future - issues closely linked to the recent history of former Yugoslavia. His installations combine video, drawing, objects and architecture, with a special interest in architectural symbols and their meaning today.
In Out of Projection, Maljkovic describes various types of fissures, not only historical and generational, but narrative too; therefore, he employs two projections to show two different cinema genres: science fiction, with speculative discourses on the future that is now the present, and documentary, as he articulates a silent discourse on the past through the actors' facial expressions and postures. Through this he is able to generate both more interest in the viewer, and palpable frustration at not reaching an understanding of the historical message the leading characters are trying to portray.
In another of his works, Scene for New Heritage (2004-2006), a certain sense of science fiction is also prevalent due to its futuristic setting. In the piece, young people wander around what was once an emblematic building, in 1980, in the Petrova Gora Memorial Park, a building constructed by Vojin Bakic under the the communist government in Yugoslavia to commemorate World War Two victims. These young people's complete inability to communicate in any way with the monument creates such intensity that the historical and political reasons for it fall into the amnesia that Maljkovic aims to explore.
Lost Memories From These Days (2006) is a continuation of These Days (2005) and takes place in the Italian pavilion at the Zagreb Fair, designed by Giuseppe Sambito in 1960. It starts with images of the pavilion full of modern cars, and their implied economic significance, and features young models leaning on them looking bored and tired, estranged from the past they are staging.
Maljkovic is one of the most fascinating artists on the current European art scene. His work can be found in numerous museums, and the exhibitions featuring his work include those in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in Rijeka; the Centre de Creation Contemporain, Tours; the Annet Gelink Gallery, Le Plateau, Paris; and Whitechapel, London.
Exhibition´s details
Collection artworks included in the exhibition
