Dalibor Martinis

http://www.dalibormartinis.com/

"TV News / TV Dnevnik, September 4", 1974-2009

Video and Video Installation

Dalibor Martinis does not want to introduce a subjective interpretation of the past, and he calls it 'Data Recovery'. The author uses this term to describe a 'partial recovery of lost data from the memory without the context that before the loss used to give them a positive, informative, social or other meaning. Just like the lost computer data, which is sometimes recovered only in fragments, disconnected from the original files, this process attempts to recover parts of actions, events or situations which have disappeared in our collective memory loss. What matters is that such event should not be contextualized through interpretations, historical constructions or manipulation of the lost memory. History is a perpetual stream of confabulations, spontaneous production of false memories.' On September 4, 1974 Dalibor Martinis created a video titled 'Still Life' which depicts a television set whose screen shows evening TV news. 35 years later, the author created a TV news which featured him reading the news exactly as transcribed from the 1974 evening programme. The TV news show was modern and contemporary regarding the aspects of technical characteristics, the equipment, design and the additional information presented on the screen (stock market information etc.), and only the content of the news belonged to a past era, past ideology and the former country. Text by Darko Fritz

CV

DALIBOR MARTINIS is an artist and a video maker. He has exhibited his videotapes, video/interactive and site-specific installations in many international exhibitions such as Sao Paolo Biennale, Dokumenta, Venice Biennale, and film/video festivals in Berlin, Tokyo, Montreal, San Francisco, and Locarno etc.

Martinis received several international awards (Tokyo Video Festival 1984, Wroclaw 1991, Triest 1996, etc.) and his videos have been broadcast by national televisions in Europe.

He participated in the international exhibitions "Arts for Television" (Boston, Vienna, San Francisco, Montreal, New York), "Video skulptur-retrospektiv und aktuel" (Koeln, Berlin), "Europa, Europa", Bonn; recently, in the shows "After The Wall" at Moderna Museet, Stockholm; "50 Years of Art in Middle Europe" at Museum moderner kunst Ludwig, Vienna, "Blood&Honey" Sammlung Essl/Vienna etc.

His works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art/New York, Stedelijk Museum/Amsterdam, ZKM Karlsruhe, New York Public Library, The Museum of Contemporary Art/Zagreb, etc.