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David Maljković // Scenes for a New Heritage
maljkovic

 David Maljković Born (1973) and lives in Croatia. Recent solo exhibitions: Metro Pictures Gallery, New York (2007), PS1, New York (2008), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2008); recent group exhibitions: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008), Kunstverein Dusseldorf (2008).

Scene for a New Heritage (2006), the epic trilogy of films created by Croation artist David Maljković, presents a futuristic world ca. 2045. The first film, which was shot over a period of three years (2004–2006), focuses on a group of visitors to a memorial park commemorating the victims of the Second World War. During their visit to the site, they enter into an argument about its meaning – which has long been forgotten. In the second film, which takes place twenty years later, a boy is seen looking out from the memorial tower over an empty, snow covered landscape, as if in the midst of some spiritual pilgrimage. The third and last film captures adolescents moving aimlessly around the central tower of the abandoned memorial. This desolate site commemorating the history of the 20th century is transformed, for the visitors, into an empty shell. The film invites viewers to consider how the meaning of history and of historical monuments changes over time.