David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic. Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

 

In his studies of the unredeemed promises of the past and what they offer for our present, David Maljkovic (*1973) looks to his own history growing up under Tito’s rule in the former Yugoslavia to reflect upon the legacy of the international avant-garde and the possibilities of rebuilding a future. Maljkovic works within the tradition of collage, both as a formal principle and conceptual device. The jarring energy of the modernist collage—and its counterpart, the archive—allows the artist to use formal strategies such as juxtaposition and displacement to envision new political and conceptual possibilities.

 

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Everything from Soviet cartoons, the architecture of public pavilions and the studios and film sets of Croatian artist collectives become the impetus for Maljkovic’s own films, sculptures, photographs, collages and installations. Previous works by the artist are often reused as raw material for new work, their content and form recycled as Maljkovic refuses to fix them in one finite state, or time. This cannibalistic impulse was particularly manifest in his four-venue exhibition A Retrospective by Appointment (2015), where he utilized different supports and half-formed constructions such as temporary drywalls and architectural interventions as framing devices in order to create a set of open-ended and interconnected exhibition spaces. Maljkovic’s strategy underlines his belief that the conventional white cube is never neutral but rather part of a complex, re-workable scenography, or even a sculpture unto itself that choreographs the viewer’s perspective in the space.

For his series of collages New Reproductions (2013–15) the artist used the temporal montage techniques of film to combine images that oscillate between fiction and documentary. Using elements sourced solely from his own extensive archive, the material is enlarged, torn and layered, creating agglomerations of material that bring to mind decaying posters hastily pasted in public. Color test cards, slides and the outdated apparatus of film projection add to a sense of a conflict between analogue and digital, past and present. The images in the collages also overflow from the frame, becoming wallpapered directly to the gallery walls or, as exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale, attached to aluminum and MDF structures that stand like mysterious columns or rudimentary street furniture.

Out of Projection (2009-2014), filmed at the Peugeot test track in Sochaux, France, likewise questions the dualities of past/present and fiction/documentary through the ghostly depiction of unrealized concept cars alongside the retired employees who made them. The car is presented as an inert symbol of the past, rather than the specific vision of the future it once promised. His reflections on the legacy of Peugeot’s research team mirror those of his interest in the visionary architectural or social concepts of his native Croatia, and how these memories can transform into futuristic propositions, exemplifying his concern with collective memory and the lasting influence of failed utopian aspirations. Maljkovic sets himself the challenge of an ongoing negotiation of his own political, historical and institutional circumstances and the ongoing threat of being governed by them. Through an introspective instinct and by not fixing his own work in a permanent state, he (re)creates new solutions to work against, if not quite overcome, these impersonal forces.

 

David Maljkovic: In Low Resolution
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, October 19, 2014–January 10, 2015
© Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2014

 

Works
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
Powder coated aluminium, MDF, wallpaper
275 × 183 × 98.4 cm
108 1/4 × 72 × 387 3/8 inches

More views
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames, 2010

David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames, 2010
Black and white print from collage on negative
42 × 31.8 cm (framed)
16 1/2 × 12 1/2 inches (framed)

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Untitled (Out of Projection), 2009–12

David Maljkovic
Untitled (Out of Projection), 2009 – 2012
Inkjet print
100 × 150 cm
39 3/8 × 59 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2014

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2014
Fibreglass mold (Peugeot movie car)
75 × 250 × 155 cm
29 1/2 × 98 3/8 × 61 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Out of Projection, 2009/2010

David Maljkovic
Out of Projection, 2009/2010
Collage
16.5 × 100 cm
6 1/2 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008

David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008
16 mm film
6:16 min

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
16mm projector, plinth, mortar, drawing pins
Dimensions variable
140 × 40 × 40 cm (plinth)
55 1/8 × 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 inches ( (plinth))

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
Inkjet print on archival paper with collage element
100 × 150 cm
39 3/8 × 59 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011
Dimensions variable

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012
Plant, wood
Dimensions variable 

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
Carousel slide projection, 80 slides

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Details
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
Inkjet prints collaged and mounted on alubond
150 × 100 cm
59 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
Inkjet prints collaged and mounted on alubond
150 × 100 cm
59 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Afterform, 2013
Slide, slide projector, plinth
140.3 × 45.1 × 45.1 cm (plinth)
55 1/4 × 17 3/4 × 17 3/4 inches (plinth)

David Maljkovic
Afterform, 2013
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
Powder coated aluminium, MDF, wallpaper
275 × 183 × 98.4 cm
108 1/4 × 72 × 387 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015 (detail)

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames, 2010
Black and white print from collage on negative
42 × 31.8 cm (framed)
16 1/2 × 12 1/2 inches (framed)

David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames, 2010
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled (Out of Projection), 2009 – 2012
Inkjet print
100 × 150 cm
39 3/8 × 59 inches

David Maljkovic
Untitled (Out of Projection), 2009–12
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2014
Fibreglass mold (Peugeot movie car)
75 × 250 × 155 cm
29 1/2 × 98 3/8 × 61 inches

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2014
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Out of Projection, 2009/2010
Collage
16.5 × 100 cm
6 1/2 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
Out of Projection, 2009/2010
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008
16 mm film
6:16 min

David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Images With Their Own Shadows, 2008
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
16mm projector, plinth, mortar, drawing pins
Dimensions variable
140 × 40 × 40 cm (plinth)
55 1/8 × 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 inches ( (plinth))

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
Inkjet print on archival paper with collage element
100 × 150 cm
39 3/8 × 59 inches

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projection, 2012
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011
Dimensions variable

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Temporary Projections, 2011
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012
Plant, wood
Dimensions variable 

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2012
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
Carousel slide projection, 80 slides

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014 (detail)

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014 (detail)

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014 (detail)

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution, 2014
Details
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Current and Upcoming
David Maljkovic
David Maljković, In the Pictorial Code, 2021
© David Maljković

David Maljković
In the Pictorial Code
Quetzal Art Center, Portugal
Through August 31, 2023

Quetzal Art Center proudly presents a solo exhibition by David Maljković titled In the Pictorial Code. At the core of Maljković’s practice is a regimented exploration of formalist concerns. Whilst narrative is the driving element at the origin of a project, the artist’s varied means of visual implementation consistently and profoundly modifies and compromises its supremacy, whether that is through photography, video, sculpture, installation, collage or painting. In the Pictorial Code presents recent works that play with the idea of painting as a guardian of time and the painter’s position as its witness. The exhibition establishes a marking system that embodies the image’s position within the author’s practice, and also tracks its displacement into other media.

Link
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
April 10–May 9, 2015
London

David Maljkovic is known for multifaceted exhibitions that investigate the erosion of memory and the corruption of information, revealing how ideas can be worn down by the effects of time and technology. For his second show at Sprüth Magers, London, Maljkovic will present a group of inkjet photo collages titled New Reproduction (2013), as well as Afterform (2013), a single slide projection, and a new version of the HD video Out of Projection (2009-2014), a title that the artist has used for a number of previous, related works. The formal principle of collage is key to Maljkovic’s oeuvre: the artist has adopted this method as a way to respond to our defective memories, recombining photographs, films and projected images from his own personal archive. 

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David Maljkovic
A Long Day for the Form
June 28–August 25, 2012
Berlin

A Long Day for the Form showcases David Maljković’s current body of work, in which he gives his own artistic practise a radical restaging, an approach recently explored in shows at Kunsthalle, Basel, Sculpture Centre, New York and Seccession, Vienna. Objects developed as presentation structures for other contexts and contents have been cleared out, emptied and arranged in the gallery as isolated sculptural objects and architectural structures, while small interventions by the artist such as sound and light serve to recall the presence of missing works. By concentrating on these various forms of display, Maljković focuses attention on his own artistic strategies and experiences as well as addressing the act of exhibiting itself.

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames
November 5–December 23, 2010
London

The title of David Maljkovic’s solo exhibition can be understood in relation to his current body of work but also indicates a recurring theme in his artistic practice: recalling ideas from the past and analysing their impact on the present. He introduces places, their architectural structures and their underlying concepts in modified pictorial arrangements as a means of determining their current potential. Maljkovic creates these reconstructions by applying the technique of collage to the media of photography and film: by crossfading between different time levels, he also gives them a fictional dimension that transforms them into sites for an alternative future.

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Rethinking Location
Rosa Barba, Cyprien Gaillard, Andreas Hofer, David Maljkovic, Trevor Paglen, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Sterling Ruby, Paul Sietsema, Taryn Simon, Armando Andrade Tudela, Andro Wekua
May 1–June 21, 2010
Berlin

Evolving from the work of twelve conceptual artists, filmmakers and photographers presenting alternate interpretations of fictional geographies, imaginary sites and "mash-up" destinations, the exhibition Rethinking Location reconsiders the notion of location. In an era characterized by a rapidly changing perception of time and space due to ever increasing mobility, migration and globalization, our understanding of what a location is has significantly transformed.

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
November 20, 2009–January 16, 2010
Berlin

The artist’s practice engages with the heritage of modern utopias, both in its theoretical and practical manifestations. His films, drawings, sculptures and installations often evolve around the potential of monuments and pavilions built during a period of optimism in former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s that have now been neglected or forgotten. Maljkovic resuscitates such former memorials by turning them into sites for alternative activities, often carried out by members of his own generation. Evolving around two films and a series of collages the exhibition focuses on two architectural installations, confronting the viewer with a seemingly forgotten or invisible ‘heritage’- one that is not presently perceived as valuable or legitimate.

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Press

David Maljković
Art in America, article by Milena Tomic, April 2016

Nothing is Lots
Elephant, article by Fisun Güner, Autumn 2015

Spatial Resolution and Temporal Displacement
Palais, article by Julian Frosacq, October 2014 – January 2015

Die Heimat, eine zerrissene Welt
Tagblatt, article by Brigitte Schmid-Gugler, February 26, 2014

The Future is an Empty Space
Flash Art, article by Nick Aikens, November/December 2013

Critics’ Picks: David Maljković
Artforum, article by Jacquelyn Davis

David Maljković
Art Review, article by Oliver Basciano, October 2013

David Maljković “Sources in the Air” at GAMeC, Bergamo
Mousse Magazine

David Maljković
Frieze, article by Bettina Brunner, January 1, 2012

Grillenzirpen zwischen kahlen weißen Wänden
Berliner Zeitung, article by Ingeborg Ruthe, August 2, 2012

David Maljković at Sprüth Magers London
Aesthetica Magazine, review by Charles Danby, January 4, 2011

David Maljković: Recalling Frames
Art Review, article by J. J. Charlesworth, January & February 2011

Biography

David Maljkovic (*1973, Rijeka) lives and works in Zagreb. Selected solo exhibitions include Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2020), Renaissance Society, Chicago (2019), Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, VOX Centre de l’Image Contemporaine, Montreal (both 2016), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2014), Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2013), CAC-Contemporary Art Senter, Vilnius (2013), Kunsthalle Basel (with Latifa Echakhch, 2012), Sculpture Center, New York (with Lucy Skaer, 2012), Secession, Vienna (2011–2012), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2009), Kunstverein Hamburg (2007) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2007). Selected group exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Fondazione Merz, MoMA, New York (all 2019), Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, ICA, Boston (both 2018), Mumok, Vienna (2016), Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (2015), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2014), MAXXI Museum, Rome (2013), La Triennale, Paris (2012), Bucharest Biennale 5 (2012), Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2011–2012), Arnolfini, Bristol (2011), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2011) and the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010). He was included in the 56st Venice Biennale (2015).

Education
2003–04 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
1998–99 Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Multimedia alternative
1996–2000 Acedemy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Department of Painting
1993–96 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Rijeka, Art Department
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2010 Croatian Association of Artists Award, Zagreb
International Contemporary Art Prize Diputació de Castelló
2009 ARCO Prize for Young Artists, Madrid
2002 36th Zagreb Salon Award, Zagreb
Filip Trade Award, Zagreb
Public Collections
Centre Pompidou, Paris
CA2M Centro de Arte Dos De Mayo, Madrid
David Roberts Foundation, London
De Bruin-Hejn Collection, Amsterdam
EACC Espai d’art contemporani de Castello
ENEA Righi Collection
Espacio 1414, Santurce
EVN Collection, Maria Enzerdorf
Filip Trade Collection, Zagreb
Fonds municipal d'art contemporain, Ville de Paris
FRAC des Pays de la Loire
LA CAIXA Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, Barcelona
GOMA - Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
MUSAC, Leon
Madam Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Pomeranz Collection, Vienna
Rialto 6, Lisboa
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tate, London
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven