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Anwesenheit der Klarheit

Photo: Adam Sakovy
Photo: Adam Sakovy
Photo: Adam Sakovy
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    • Anwesenheit der Klarheit
    • Prisustvo jasnoće
  • 1978
  • artist book, pencil on paper, stapled
  • 20,9 × 29,5 cm
The artist’s book “Presence of Clarity / Prisustvo jasnoće” relates to Mladen Stilinović’s exhibiting practice, which always involved paying tribute to the countries where he showed his books on tables or in display cases. For German-speaking countries, the artist would add a German translation to the Croatian version, applied beneath the original in his typical technique—pencil on sandpaper. Inside the book, the phrases counter the title and always begin with “absent,” which is followed by nouns such as: “feeling,” “object,” “thought,” “white,” “space,” “time,” and “clarity.” The artist thus refers to various instances of perception, which can appear one moment and disappear the next. And in this way, the ephemeral essence of being in general is questioned as an existential as well as inherent component of life. Stilinović’s philosophical questioning of the everyday can be seen as an essential quality of his artistic practice—manipulating and (re-)appropriating various ideological formats via the means of language. W.S.