Artiste Anonyme / Anonymous Conceptual Artist / Umjetnik u krizi: Goran Trbuljak’s Names and Namelessness
Artiste Anonyme / Anonymous Conceptual Artist / Umjetnik u krizi: Goran Trbuljak’s Names and Namelessness

Summary/Abstract: Goran Trbuljak (b. 1948) is recognized as one of the central figures of Yugoslav Nova umjetničkapraksa (New Art Practice), primarily for his early works that engaged in a questioningof the status of the figure of the artist and the institution of the exhibition. This article focuseson the centrality of various forms of self-concealment, primarily anonymity and theuse of pseudonyms, in Trbuljak’s art. I also discuss what I refer to as the involuntary obfuscationthat has come through Trbuljak’s association with conceptual art and institutionalcritique, labels that have tended to block rather than advance the discussion of his practice.I urge new paths to interpretation through considerations of Trbuljak’s interest in the street,walking, the body, and his insistence on a position liminality, never quite committing himselfto one particular role, ideology or space. I refer to Michel de Certeau’s notions of the tacticand la perruque from The Practice of Everyday Life as a way to understand the political dimensionsof Trbuljak’s tendencies.

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