Conversation with Freud – The Artist as his own Complex
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- Conversation with Freud – The Artist as his own Complex
- Razgovor s Freudom - Umjetnik sam svoj kompleks
- 1982/1995
- 6 b&w photographs
- 105,3 × 96,7 cm
In “Conversations with Freud – The Artist as His Own Complex,” Mladen Stilinović treats his own persona in a threefold sense—a reference to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical concept of the three versions of the self. According to Freud, the human psyche is structured into the Id (relating to instincts), the Ego (relating to reality), and the Superego (relating to morality). In his six-part photo series, Stilinović appears doubled or tripled in the respective images, thereby enacting each version of the Freudian constellation of the self. The manipulated photographic sequences show the artist looking at himself while discussing, sleeping, working or having sex in an autoerotic manner. Stilinović ironically visualizes Freud’s theories and dream interpretation by multiplying his own self and thus gaining the ability to regard himself while performing different tasks—the purpose being to enter the realm of the unconscious in order to reveal a great deal about one’s own personality and the structural components underlying it. With this work, the artist highlights the self’s importance but also questions the role of the artist in society with its intricate egotistical and/or narcissist tendencies. W.S.