The work of David Maljkovic, a Croatian artist who currently lives between Zagreb and Berlin, focuses on collective memory and amnesia, as well as the possibility of rebuilding a future. All of these questions are very much tied to the recent history of former Yugoslavia. Maljkovic’s installations mix videos, drawings, objects and architectural features, lending particular attention to architectural symbols and their meanings today.

Marked by a certain air of science fiction, the Scene for New Heritage (2004-2006) trilogy unfolds in the future. A group of young people wanders through what was once an emblematic building in 1980: Petrova Gora Memorial Park, a building constructed by Vojin Bakic during communism to commemorate the victims of World War II. The impossibility of these youth to establish any connection to the space reaches such intensity that the historical and political reasons justifying it fall into the very state of amnesia that Maljkovic aims at exploring.

Lost Memories for These Days (2006) is a continuation of These Days (2005), unfolding in the Italian pavilion designed by Giuseppe Sambito for the Zagreb Fair in 1960. Images of the pavilion filled with modern cars and the economic significance they imply, served as the point of departure for this work in which young models lean tired or bored on their cars, estranged from the past witnessed within this space.

Maljkovic’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka; Centre de Creation Contemporain, Tours; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; Le Plateau, Paris; and Whitechapel, London.