MG+MSUM

Sven Stilinović, Geometry of Bloodthirstiness (1999), 2005
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Sven Stilinović

Geometry of Bloodthirstiness (1999)

performance in Split, 2005

on the wall: Petar Grimani, Jack Welch, drawing

photo: Josip Ostojić

 

 

Suzana Marjanić: You performed the second Geometry of Bloodthirstiness five years after the first Geometry of Bloodthirstiness, at the Kapelica Gallery (Ljubljana, 1998). There was an installation (neon, bones, glass, blood, aluminum frames, a table), and you sat at the table and sharpened a knife and then, again, fed the audience roasted whole lamb, bread and wine. Were there any people among the spectators who didn’t want to consume an animal carcass? And, I’d also like to know how you feel when you sink a knife into the neck of an innocent animal, whose symbolic capital you nonetheless exploit using artistic, “geometric” strategies?

 

Sven Stilinović: How I feel? I’m a carnivore, and in order not to be a hypocrite (someone said that hypocrisy was civilization), I had to do it myself from beginning to end, that is, to butcher, skin, cook, share and eat the animal. Maybe I’m uncivilized, but civilization doesn’t necessarily always mean something good. I did this only once, in Dubrovnik (Lazareti, 2000) during a solar eclipse to save the world. That makes it the fifth Geometry of Bloodthirstiness. Nobody can say I didn’t save the world. There’s a certain irony in that. What do I feel? It’s not easy, it’s not easy to kill an animal. But what if you find yourself in a situation when you have to do it to feed yourself? In Velebit I ran out of food, so I killed dormice. Poor nations, poor people need to know how to kill, they can’t afford to be vegetarians, to be finicky about food. They eat what they have – meat, grass, garbage, canned dog or cat food… Have you ever tried it? It’s edible. Civilization is the privilege of the wealthy. Anyway, everybody gorges themselves at my Geometry of Bloodthirstiness performances.”

 

Translation of an excerpt from: “Smrt državi, sloboda tebi i meni. Razgovor Suzane Marjanić sa Svenom Stilinovićem” in: Sven Stilinović, Neću, ed. Branka Stipančić (Zagreb: DAF, 2017), p. 152.

 

 

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Sven Stilinović is a conceptual artist, photographer, performer set designer, and video artist. He was born in Zagreb in 1956. He lived there until the late 1990s, when he moved to Rijeka. In 2008 he returned to Zagreb. He has been active as an artist since the mid-1970s. He was a member of the Group of Six Artists, which had a major retrospective exhibition in Zagreb in 1998; this then travelled to Rijeka and Split in 1999, and in 2000 to Ljubljana. The Group of Six Artists has an important place in Croatian contemporary experimental and innovative art. Sven Stilinović’s solo oeuvre, marked by his unique expression, spans various fields of contemporary art: installation, photography, video, performance art, and actions. He has had solo exhibitions since 1983, and is considered one of most prominent conceptual artists on the contemporary Croatian art scene. In addition to visual art, he also worked in theater set design and interior design. He has had solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad: in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Belgrade, Ljubljana (ŠKUC, Kapelica, Moderna galerija), Skopje, Berlin, Brighton, Moscow, Sydney and more. His works are included in museum and private collections. He is a member of the Croatian Fine Artists’ Association and of the Association of Freelance Artists of Croatia. He is the father of Klara.

 
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