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

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are pleased to present an exhibition by Croatian artist David Maljković, featuring two sound installations and an accompanying series of prints. In his second solo show at the Berlin gallery, the artist examines the very condition of an exhibition by ridding the project of content and isolating the set-up itself through a meta-installation of ‘displays’.

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.

The installation A Long Day for the Form (2012) consists of a large studio reflector panel lit by a single spotlight. Reflected light is directed onto an elevated architectural element, constructed in the corner of the gallery, from which the sound of chirping crickets can be heard. The sculptural structure demonstrates the artist’s use of avante garde architecture and design as a constant point of reference. The monotonous sound of the crickets activates and enlivens the space, but at the same time evokes memories of long, hot, exhausting summer days. The installation opens up contradicting temporalities, a central concern in David Maljković´s work; on the one hand the display structure may have been emptied of artworks; on the other hand, the projector and empty walls represent the possibility of a future presentation. The installation can thus be read both as a symbol of the absent past or of a history yet to be materialized, or a future that may never arrive.

David Maljković works with the gallery space, modifying the view and architectural parameteres by

building elements into the room. A specially built suspended ceiling has been constructed at the far end of the gallery, housing a set of speakers, and a spotlight is positioned outside the window. The

architectural intervention blocks the expansive gallery window, disrupting the scenic space and the peaceful environment the sound of the crickets and the light from the window initially generates.

Through consideration of the gallery’s architecture, Maljković´s works engage with the space and

thoroughly transform its expression.

The exhibition will also include a series of prints in three parts, featuring a snapshot of a tired art handler at the Vjenceslav Richter Collection in Maljković’s native town of Zagreb, Croatia. The work makes reference to one of the artist’s films Images With Their Own Shadows (2008). Maljković merges the photographs with an impression of the projection device used for the original installation. By displaying the three prints vertically, like a column, the artist establishes an architectural element to the series.