I Was in Ljubljana – I Was in Zagreb, With My Sense of Sight I Registered Ljubljana at 11 A.M. Zagreb at 2:45 P.M.
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- I Was in Ljubljana – I Was in Zagreb, With My Sense of Sight I Registered Ljubljana at 11 A.M. Zagreb at 2:45 P.M.
- Bio sam u Ljubljani – bio sam u Zagrebu, registrovao sam čulom vida Ljubljanu u 11 h i Zagreb u 14:45 h
- 1973
- 7 b&w photographs, handwritten text, felt-tip pen mounted on paper
- 29,3 × 20,8 cm
Exploring the philosophical nature of a work of art via the need for art to explore itself (by working on, in, and around art), Slavko Matković sought to demystify the process of creating a work of art. Articulated visually and verbally in a parallel manner, information about art acquires the significance of an artwork. In this action, Matković transformed the physical spaces of the cities of Zagreb and Ljubljana into his own mental space. The tool for making this transformation, functioning as a mediator of the idea, is the body—that is, the artist’s own senses. The objectless art of Slavko Matković implies conditions in which the artist creates not artworks but only situations. Only out of extreme necessity may these situations be proclaimed his art. The work also refers to the active artistic collaboration in which the members of the Bosch and Bosch group engaged with artists based in these two cities. For Matković, (former) Yugoslavia wasn’t just a geographical or historical fact—it was a conceptual fact, too. N.M.