Mladen Stilinović

• Kunsthaus Graz, Graz (AT)
• 28.02.–24.08.2025

The exhibition Freeing the Voices begins with one voice, the scream of Marina Abramović – that is to say, one human being that grows during the exhibition into a multitude of mainly human voices, and ends with the voice of the midge in the work of Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec. We do not hear the voice of the midge with our ears; its presence is in our radical listening. Listening is not the same as hearing. Its specificity lies in our attention and awareness of ourselves and others, human and non-human beings, and things.

Mladen Stilinović's work relates to the ideological, economic and everyday context of the former Yugoslavia and Croatia. His interest centres on language, political slogans, media manipulation, street design and people's speech, playing with the 'exploitation' of language to open up new visual and poetic dimensions.

Početnica (Primer 1, 2, 3) is a trilogy of short silent films that begins by asking viewers to read aloud the texts that follow. The first part presents signboards from a hairdressing salon, locksmith, cooper, carpentry and other shops – from numbers 57 to 67 on Vlaška Street, Zagreb. Here Stilinović opens up an area of ​​his interest in street design, which arises spontaneously, created by ʹsignwritersʹ, people without professional knowledge. Stilinović loved this kind of design: two of the books (leporello) he created in 1975 were dedicated to hairdressers and photography workshops.

In the second part, entitled The Reader, the function of the picture is completely taken over by the words and letters from Stilinović's poem, arranged so that there is one word in each frame. As the word is read faster than the length of the frame, the relation with the word read previously is lost, and in the end the meaning of this otherwise simple poem disappears. By montage fragmentation to the point of meaninglessness, the author tries to destroy the effectiveness of words with film time.

With works by Noor Abed, Marina Abramović, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Babi Badalov, selma banich, CO2… a couple of artists, VALIE EXPORT, Farhad Farzali, Essa Grayeb, Ida Hiršenfelder, Saodat Ismailova, Anna Jermolaewa, Mikhail Karikis, Anton Kats, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Brandon LaBelle & Octavio Camargo, Katalin Ladik, Lucia Nimcová, Lala Raščić, Antoni Rayzhekov, Gerhard Rühm, Selma Selman, ŠKART & NONpractical Women, Mladen Stilinović, Irena Z. Tomažin, Nora Turato, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec.

Kunsthaus Graz