Darko Maver

In 1998 we invented a reclusive artist named Darko Maver. His life was set in former Yugoslavia and heavily influenced by the ongoing war.

Darko Maver's early works were life-size sculpture supposedly made of wax, rubber and fabric.

He roamed ex-Yugoslavia depositing gruesomely realistic puppets of murder victims in abandoned buildings and hotel rooms. The models were so realistic that they apparently shocked the people who found them.

No sculpture ever existed. The images documenting his artworks were photos of real atrocities found on the internet.

Darko Maver Censored Works, exhibition view, Bologna (1999)

Darko Maver died in April 1999 in the Podgorica prison during the NATO bombing. The photo of his death, that circulated widely on the media, was actually taken in our garret in the center of Bologna.

Soon after Maver's death a string of posthumous shows culminated in the 48th Venice Biennale.

Installation view, Italian Pavilion, 48th Venice Biennale (1999)

After the show we publicly clamed we had invented his life and artworks.