#mangelos

Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos died in 1987 at the age of 66, as he himself accurately foresaw: in his manifesto “Shid Theory,” published and exhibited in Zagreb in 1978, he had divided his life into nine-and-a-half “Mangeloses,” ending in the year of his death. Mangelos’s manifesto refers to the “psycho-biological” hypothesis that he had learned about as a schoolboy in his native village of Šid in former Yugoslavia—a hypothesis according to which the cells in the human organism are entirely renewed within seven years, for which reason each human being successively embodies several completely different personalities—as an explanation of the differences between the early and late oeuvres of various artists, claiming that there were two Rimbauds, two Karl Marxes, three Van Goghs, several Picassos, and nine-and-a-half Mangeloses. He also applied this method when categorizing and dating his own works: one Mangelos was a critic and curator, while another questioned it all, claiming that one must start from a clean slate: tabula rasa. One was involved in arts institutions, while the other doubted the validity of such systems … prompting the third as well as the others thereafter to persevere in their formulation of the artistic project termed “No-Art.” B.S.

Mangelos - Relation Manifesto (1976)

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/102882

From: Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašičević), Jahnrensbuch, (artist book), around 1970, [«L'internationale»; courtesy of Mario Bruketa. © Estate of Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašicevic)]

From: Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašičević), Jahnrensbuch, (artist book), around 1970, [«L'internationale»; courtesy of Mario Bruketa. © Estate of Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašicevic)]