Mladen Stilinović (1947–2016): A Conceptual Pioneer of Yugoslav Avantgarde Mladen Stilinović (born April 10, 1947, Belgrade, Serbia; died July 18, 2016, Pula) was a Croatian conceptual artist and one of the foremost figures of Yugoslavia’s “New Art Practice,” marking a pivotal moment in artistic expression during the Cold War era. His formative years were steeped in intellectual ferment—influenced by thinkers like Sartre and Camus—and fueled by an unwavering fascination with cinema and literature, particularly Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Saint-John Perse, Khlebnikov, Osip Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, T…