Skip to main content

Cotton Pad Step

Cotton Pad Step
/7
    • Cotton Pad Step
    • Korak gaze
  • 1975
  • 8 b&w photographs
  • 23,5 × 30 cm
The work “Cotton Pad Step” consists of eight black-and-white photographs documenting a performative action initiated by Mladen Stilinović in the public space of Zagreb. Passers-by become part of this artwork as they were confronted with a large white strip of cotton on the sidewalk. White was an important color for the artist throughout his artistic career, symbolizing notions of absence as well as silence. Moreover, white has been an important element in the history of modern art ever since Kazimir Malevich. In the case of this work by Stilinović, it was up to passers-by whether they acknowledged the presence of the cotton strip or simply ignored it, leading to two options: stepping on or over it. They thus unintentionally participated in an artistic action documented by the camera as an anonymous spectator. The portrayed sequence of bodily gestures represents a proto-filmic scenario derived from the artist’s interest in experimental short films during the 1970s. Stilinović also made a three-minute 16 mm film (“Cotton Pad Step,” 1975) that has unfortunately since been lost. Furthermore, he included his photographic series in an artist book done as a leporello. W.S.