Interviewed in Zagreb on 2 November 2015

From the very beginning, Croatian visual artist David Maljković has questioned the relationship between the content of the work of art and the way in which the same work of art has been mediated and embodied. In his research, he crosses the boundaries of genre and media, and touches upon a wide range of issues: from questioning artistic experience and behavior to looking back at some of the key issues from the modernist cultural heritage. Maljković deliberately distances himself from the ideological implications of his work, but he has pointed out at some of the problems that are still largely marginalized in the local context. Inasmuch, his work lies at the crossroad between the autonomy of art and the art that carries social resonances.

Ćurlin: I would like to start with your current exhibition in Zagreb. We are now in your studio that has, for the time being, lost its function, it has become a public space. Could you tell us a bit more about this spatial transformation, and in what ways does this exhibition address Zagreb and its local scene?

Maljković: In the beginning, we were trying to find a larger space, but we were limited by our resources. We thought about where to start from and decided on the Nova Gallery and my studio. This particular and somewhat frustrating precondition influenced the whole concept of the exhibition, and it resulted in my work being displayed in a wider setting. In an intimate studio space, it is quite discernible that there is a certain degree of overlapping of the current production with the past ones created during my studies, but this is graspable even through some other reflections. I think it is very important to show this work in Zagreb, especially because for the last ten years I have not exhibited here much, information about what I do has been coming from abroad in a rather simple and one-sided form.