DNLM

Description

Danilo Milovanović, alias DNLM, grew up in Bosnia-Herzegovina before studying art and design in Ljubljana. He focuses on social issues, problems and phenomena, using a variety of means, and is generally representative of the quieter, subtler side of urban art.
Walls peppered with bullet holes are to be found in many countries. In the former Yugoslavia, which succumbed to ethnonationalism, they tell of a more recent history. Compared to the most recent past, however, even that is a long time ago.
The antihuman nexus of identity politics and geopolitics, invariably served up with great business opportunities and double standards, has already moved on to pastures new. While presidents and profiteers move to advance their agendas over the dead bodies of tens of thousands of civilians, the climate is becoming increasingly difficult for artists who maintain that art should be something other than a good investment, like shares in Rheinmetall.
“I Can Not Even Think About Art,” thinks Milovanović as he metaphorically reaches for a gun. In his work – which he calls a “combination of destructive technology and defensive testimony” – these words appear as if accurately shot into the foundations of the Völklingen Ironworks – a place that, long before anyone here began to think about art, was itself part of the military-industrial complex during the two World Wars. Tellingly, he has also scattered empty rounds across the floor, like hundreds of pieces of gold.

Robert Kaltenhäuser