RADOMIR DAMNJANOVIĆ DAMNJAN

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan (Mostar, 1936): painter, conceptual artist and performer, has evolved from the successful, moderately modernist painting model (typical of socialist Yugoslavia in the 50’s), to the model of es- thetically, theoretically and socially antagonistic conceptual art nihilism. He actively lived out this critical stepping out while re-examining the phenomenal and conceptual borders of painting in the second half of the 20th century. he performance“Honoring the Soviet Avant-garde”, done in 1972 and 1973, transformed his position from artist who creates a highly regarded object, into artist who takes a clear ethical, esthetic and political stance toward art history and the system of local culture’s values. he cynical removal from the socially and economically accepted art, Damnjan expresses even clearer in 1976 with the textual intervention on a printed form. As an art object, it becomes a certiicate of its supposed artistic valued signed by the author. he “Disinformation” project Damnjan tackles in diferent media –photography and painting. He attempts to show that the critical re-examining of his initial, painterly medium within the system of art and culture, has allowed for the artistic freedom in his choosing of the proper communication channel for the idea.“Disinformation” is based on the incongruence between the textual and visual segments of the work. By pointing out the ontological arbitrary nature of the procedure of naming, “Disinformation” refers to the status of art and the artist, in particular local ones who are facing the greater presence of an international scene. One has to keep in mind that Damnjan’s painterly transition occurs within the context of the Cold War, of global and local turmoil, and fast development of the electronic media with possibility of an instant and constant proliferation of information. he act of disinformation, ranging from the daily political to strategies in marketing, thus becomes the eicient means of social conditioning and population control on a daily basis.