Pain Opera Mladena Stilinovicia
Mladen Stilinović’s Pain Opera

Author(s): Anna Ruttar-Sakouhi
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: Mladen Stilinović (1947–2016), a world-famous founding member of Croatian conceptual and avant-garde movements, is one of most important contemporary artists. He is probably most widely known for his works dealing with the influence and power of money and not less known for artistic comments to the very important questions of politics, society, economy, death, pain, food, work, absence. A central role in Stilinović’s conceptual work is played by language (poetry, everyday language and discourse used in newspapers) and social aspects of various societies and their relationships. My research are focused on the topic of pain – which is a theme that crops up in all periods of Stilinović’s work in art, especially in Dictionary – Pain (2000–2003), where “all the words mean pain” and “a space for associative freedom and dialogue in which words acquire multiple accents and voices opens up” (N. Ilić). In my reading Stilinović’ artistic idea of Dictionary – Pain as a minimalist Pain Opera in the series of cultural and aesthetic references acquires an in-depth meaning.

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