Exhibition catalogue, 2007.
62 pages, 45 colour images, 22 x 21 cm
Bilingual (Croatian / English), softcover, FLAPS
Publisher: Institute for Contemporary Art
Editor: Janka Vukmir
Author: Mladen Lučić

This catalogue accompanied a solo exhibition by Sven Stilinović
focused exclusively on his photographic work, particularly photo
collages. He was working with photo collages since his early artistic
activities in the mid 70ies, when he was still in school, and
simultaneously the member of the famous Zagreb based Group of
Six Artists (with Boris Demur, Željko Jerman, Vlado Martek, Mladen
Stilinovć and Fedor Vučemilović). The exhibition examined the
history of the photographic medium, photo technology and Sven’s
experimenting with the medium.

“The artistic work of Sven Stilinović is certainly a specific and in
many ways unique episode in the context of contemporary Croatian
art.
Although primarily concerned with photography, in his work
surpasses by far its typological definition, and of course its primary
purpose. Photography as one of the means of visual expression of
specific aesthetic poetic, simply never existed for Sven.
It is impossible to separate his beginnings from the Group of Six
Authors, who treated photography exclusively as a simple and
efficient means of establishing communication and as simple as
possible reading of post-conceptual expression of their work. If that
were, tentatively, the primary role of photography in the work of the
Six Authors, the secondary role was experimenting with
photography as a medium, and Željko Jerman, Fedor Vučemilović
and of course Sven Stilinović applied it more than the rest.
…
Sven consciously escapes from previous artistic experience, doesn’t
evoke history, memories nor tradition…” M. Lučić

Sven Stilinović (1956) is a conceptual artist, photographer,
performer, stage designer and video artist. Professionally he has
been active since the mid-seventies. He was a member of the Group
of Six authors. The Group of Six is an important segment of Croatian
contemporary experimental and innovative art. Sven Stilinović’s
independent opus includes works from various fields of
contemporary creativity, and everyone is a shared expression of
Stilinović’s expression. He worked on installations, photography,
video, performances and actions. He has been exhibiting
independently since 1983 and is one of the most important
conceptual artists of the Croatian contemporary scene. In addition
to working in the arts field, he also worked on theatre design and
interior design.

Mladen Lučić is one of the most important curators of
contemporary art in Croatia. He works at the Museum of
Contemporary Art of Istria in Pula, and previously has worked at the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Zagreb.