BIO

DNLM (1992, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ljubljana. He received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana, and in 2020 received the student Prešeren Award of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. He has been nominated for the OHO Award three times between 2018 and 2022. Between 2019 and 2021, he had an artist residency at Švicarija (MGLC) in Ljubljana. He is currently working in the Autonomous Cultural Zone of Metelkova. He has presented his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, International Graphic Art Center, the galleries Aksioma, Tobačna 001, Škuc, P74, Alkatraz, Cirkulacija 2 and Kresija in Ljubljana; UGM, Kibla and Obrat in Maribor; Tir in Mostovna in Nova Gorica; Miklova Hiša in Ribnica; Museum of Contemporary Art in Celje; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka; Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Novi Sad; U10 Gallery in Belgrade; EC1 24H in Copenhagen; Begehungen in Chemnitz; BienalSur in Montevideo; Miasto Ogrodow in Katowice; as part of the Europe Day 2021 project in Tel Aviv; Urban Art Biennale in Völklingen; donumenta in Regensburg; and Pražarna AB3 in Prague.

Most of DNLM’s works are socially engaged interventions in public spaces. The medium and approach are always defined by ideas, which are mostly related to the production of urban spaces and everyday social dynamics. Creating situations that speak for themselves and produce complex meanings in simple ways is a significant feature of his creativity. These temporary actions are often post-produced in a studio and mostly presented in the form of photo or video installations.

WORK AT THE EXHIBTION

Screenshot, 2023/24
photograph; intervention in public space

The work is an excerpt from the turbulent life story of an abandoned advertising board. It started spontaneously. On my daily walk from home to the city center, I noticed an old advertising board lying on the ground by the side of the road. It caught my attention mainly because of its simple, raw anatomy. I photographed the board and after a few days decided to take it to the studio and fix it. The renovated board was installed at its original location with one crucial change. Although the original advertisement could still be seen in the photo, the board now became the bearer of its own image. After four months, a strong storm brought it down again. The welded parts cracked in the strong wind and I had no choice but to repeat the action. The second iteration must have attracted some attention and caused a reaction in passers-by, as the strongly attached structure found itself on the ground again after only two weeks. I repeated the action for a third time in the same way. People had already started to stop at the site, comment on and photograph the object. After two months, the board was lying on the sidewalk next to the lawn where it had been standing, and was then picked up by the city waste collection service. After visiting several recycling and waste collection centers, I found it at the city dumpsite, and the friendly workers there granted my wish and let me retrieve it. The last photo was taken at the dumpsite, from where I brought the board back to the studio. After three months, the city authorities encroached on the place where the board used to stand and widened the existing street over the former lawn. Today, there is a bike lane in the place where the board once stood. Through the repetitions of the same gesture in the unpredictable conditions of public space, the work became a playful recording of micro-changes in urban space over time, changes that otherwise go unnoticed.