Data Recovery

author Dalibor Martinis
interviewed by Marko Golub and Željko Luketić

 
Two exhibitions, regardless of their scope and gallery surface, have marked the year of 2017, not only for Dalibor Martinis, but also for the audience who rarely has the chance to see this kind of collection. Dalibor Martinis’ body of work was called multimedia, transmedia or simply media, but it exceeds mere media linguistics and meanings which sistematically occupy it: from design and videoart through interventions and conceptual art to performance and all of the other actions within the broad spectrum of work which is today, interpretation- wise, impossible to delineate. A large problem and retrospective exhibition Data Recovery 1969-2077, in the Museum of contemporary art in Zagreb, accompanied by an extensive documentational catalogue, was curated by Leila Topić, while the far smaller, but no less interesting setup, was conceived by the Croatian design society. Counterfeits, misinformation and frozen images – the design of Dalibor Martinis in the 1970s and the 1980s gave an overview of the author’s works in the field of the exhibition and film poster and, what was especially interesting, television telops – a format which does not exist anymore, but certainly intrigued artists. Alongside his continuous educational work, Martinis could say that 2017 was an extraordinarily busy year, but a random look at the resume of one of the most successful Croatian artists, whose work can be found in the most prestigious international collections, would show that there is no time for reflection. How would Martinis the employee assess Martinis the employer in an imaginary poll, remains to be seen.