Art Basel | Unlimited: BRACO DIMITRIJEVIĆ: SAILING TO POST HISTORY

Braco Dimitrijević’s installation originates from a critical standpoint with regards to History. The artist developed the concept of ‘Post History’ in his treatise Tractatus Post Historicus, first published in 1976. The artist’s statement ‘Louvre is my studio, street is my museum’ expresses the dialectical and transgressive nature of his oeuvre. 

Sailing to Post History consists of two boats displaying black-and-white double-faced photographic portraits as their sails. The faces portrayed are those of Nikola Tesla, Amedeo Modigliani, Kazimir Malevič, and Natalia Gončarova, artists and intellectuals who were all recognized only many years after having given their pioneering contributions. Here Dimitrijević focuses on historical figures who have a special meaning for him, thus provoking doubt in existing ethical and aesthetic criteria, all recurrent themes throughout Dimitrijević’s work.

Braco Dimitrijević (b. 1948, Sarajevo) is a pioneer of Conceptual Art addressing history

and the individual’s place in it. He is renowned internationally for his 1970s ‘Casual Passer-by’ series, vast photo portraits of anonymous people displayed on prominent buildings in European and American cities. Dimitrijević lives and works in Paris.