Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Fedor Vučemilović
Croatian, Yugoslav; 20th-century
Zagreb, Croatia: Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti
31%
Otisci (Imprints). 1976. Imprints of parquet floor on paper made by walking
The best works of Yugoslav conceptualism have a clear political dimension, which they somehow make absurd and thereby transmute into aesthetic content. This piece, on the other hand, is a simple conceptualist exercise, not very distinguishable from any New York navel-gazing around 1970. The work looks like a representation but actually it's an index, a trace! This was almost already old hat by the time Richard Long walked his line into existence in 1967. In 1976 it was hardly art. No bonus points for the Balkan provincialism — there were other conceptualists in this milieu building upon, not simply rehashing, American innovations. Some bonus points since the parquet flooring with footstops on top is a sort of nice design. (TFS, 2023)