{"product_id":"u-vlastitom-interesu-in-one-s-own-interest","title":"U vlastitom interesu [In one’s own interest]","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMladen Stilinović (1947–2016) was a Croatian conceptual artist whose multidisciplinary approach encompassed photography, collage, artists’ books, film, painting, and text-based works. A founding member of the Group of Six Artists, active in Zagreb from 1975, he critically examined the relationships between language, ideology, power, money, work, and everyday life, often employing irony, paradox, and visual appropriation. Through an experimental and politically incisive practice, Stilinović became a significant figure in the development of conceptual art in the former Yugoslavia.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis unique book embodies a semiotic approach. As in his earlier work \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCrveno – Roza\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eRed – Pink\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e), Stilinović uses handwritten texts in red to explore Marxist ideological phrases associated with the world of work, including “higher goals”, “emphasized optimism”, and “directly active”. In his semantic investigations, the artist draws on the ideas of two theorists of language whose writings are quoted on the final pages:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“An essential aspect of the new quest and protest that characterize youth movements around the world is the desire to restore meaning to words and to establish new, constructive connections between the linguistic and the non-linguistic, in order to overcome what Marcuse called the linguistic politics of repression. This is not merely a matter of taking a conscious, intuitive, and collective stance against linguistic alienation; it also means creating a conflict aimed at liberation from linguistic and communicative alienation, one that belongs to the future and cannot be conceived without revolutionary practice.” (Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, loosely translated from Croatian)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In fact, every living ideological sign is Janus-faced. Every living rebuke can become a compliment, and every living truth must inevitably sound like the biggest lie to many. This inner dialectic of the sign is fully manifested only in times of social crisis and revolutionary upheaval. In ordinary conditions of social life, this contradiction cannot come fully to the surface, because the ideological sign within an established ruling ideology is always somewhat reactionary: it strives to stabilize the preceding moment in the dialectical flow of social becoming, presenting yesterday’s truth as today’s. This lends the ideological sign a fractured and distorted character within the ruling ideology.” (Mikhail Bakhtin loosely translated from Croatian.)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese quotations most likely derive from Rossi-Landi’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLanguage as Work and Trade\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and Bakhtin’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMarxism and the Philosophy of Language\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, two seminal texts examining, as Stilinović, the relationship between language, ideology, and power. This handcrafted, staple-bound volume explores the colour red, associated with communism, in order to question its limits, truthfulness, and ideological expressions. Like his other books, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eU vlastitom interesu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1980) is written entirely in Croatian. It sits in the Metabooks collection alongside other unique books by Stilinović, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOslobađanje od znanja\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1978) and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCrveno – Roza\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1979).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55613291725139,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4663.png?v=1793024769","url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/products\/u-vlastitom-interesu-in-one-s-own-interest","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}