Opening / Fr. 28 March 2025 / 19h – 00h / Performance starts approx 20h
Finissage / Fr. 02 Mai 2025 / 20h  – 00h / Performance starts approx 21h 

📍 Schleifmühlgasse 1, Vienna

DEMOKRATENSTAB

Text: Michael Hall

Milan Mijalkovic is both an architect and an artist, making it fitting that his latest project is both a performance and a product demonstration. The product or artwork in question is Demokratenstab. At first glance, it appears to be a cane or walking stick, but it is also a tool — designed for long walks and public gestures.

Mijalkovic has previously created functional sculptures, such as the Evangel, an e-scooter (developed in collaboration with Kiro Zelenikovski), which allowed the driver to stir with a flag. The Evangel e-scooters' objective was to exploit the untouched potential of micro-mobility for communication and interaction. If done correctly, walking, biking, and driving through public space can be an artistic or political act.

When thinking about Mijalkovic’s Demokratenstab, the art historian in me is constantly reminded of the actions of André Cadere, a Polish-born conceptual artist who lived and worked in Paris in the 1970s. Cadere’s claim to fame is his ‘Round Wooden Bar’ sculptures from 1970–78, which were merely wood poles composed of colored rings. Cadere would carry these sculptures with him, displaying them publicly and inserting them into exhibitions uninvited. His performative visits to galleries and institutions would disrupt the normal ‘business’ of art- by interjecting his work into other artists' exhibitions. Cadere’s attempt to ‘democratize’ the art world with his futile gestures was his most important gift.

In his recent book Demokröt, Milan Mijalkovic also deals with the many and the few in a democratic society. He talks about the power of a majority that simultaneously destroys itself and about the freedom of a minority without a voice, yet one that supports the entire system. It is as if both fronts drive him through his own (performances) speeches as if they whip into him the belief that he can help - and he can.

Like democracy, art navigates both public and private spaces. But in the age of social media, we can now scream and curse at our (political) enemies as much as we want- but with little recourse. Allowing for an increase in today's divisive politics. Ideally, new tools and products will emerge to foster a more nuanced public-private political discourse. Until then, we have the Demokratenstab.