The collection of Croatian conceptual artist Marijan Molnar in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb consists of only six photographs documenting the action or activist campaign (performance) "For the Democratization of Art". The collection is part of the Museum’s permanent exhibition. The activist campaign "For the Democratization of Art" was created in phases, in 1979, 1981 and 1983, and consists of several instances of writing graffiti and placing banners bearing the message "For the Democratization of Art" in Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade, the collection of signatures for a petition on Republic Square in Zagreb and setting up the "Democratization of Art" installation in Koprivnica.
The first action taken was the collection of signatures as a part of the exhibition/action of the Working Community of Artists on October 19, 1979. Molnar asked passers-by to sign under his work and collected 45 signatures in five hours. A large number of passers-by refused to sign the text. The "For the Democratization of Art" work assumed new forms of presentation after this action (agitation), in the form of writing graffiti and hanging banners. The next action was in the underpass in Novi Zagreb, where graffiti was scrawled in 1981 and a banner was hung on the SKUC building. In that same year, he also hung a banner and wrote graffiti in Belgrade, while in Ljubljana he hung a banner on the ŠKUC building. In the Koprivnica Gallery in 1983, Molnar set up an installation in which he combined previously used elements: the "For Democratization of Art" sign and the five-pointed star, and added a list of expectations for art.
In the text, which he asked passers-by on Republic Square to sign, Molnar presented his demands for the democratization of art: "The practice of art that sets forth from the premise of a different foundation (no more mediation) has to be cleared from within and without of all the elements and principles that work in that way, it is forced to radicalize its point of view and demands in a clear confrontation with the system, striking at the very foundation of that system. Its action, understood in this way, places it consciously and voluntarily 'outside of the law', outside the area of the public dictated by mediation. (...) With the intention of breaking the vicious cycle of cultural and estranged space, it encounters a wall of misunderstanding by the 'non-cultural' social space where, within the imposed standard of normality, the reception of this activity is impacted by the negative meaning of destruction, deviation, etc." (Molnar, Marijan. Akcije i ambijenti, Zagreb: Naklada MD, 2002, pp. 36.-37). As Molnar himself has said, the campaign on Republic Square aroused great interest, but the responses were twofold: “many people were suspicious and cautious, and watched what was happening from a safe distance. Others were mostly younger and wanted to know what it was about. Molnar pointed out that passers-by were confused and mostly saw the political dimension of the campaign, while he tried to explain that the emphasis is on the field of culture and art, stating that “art is not a matter of privilege, but a question that should concern each of us, it should bring a sense of freedom and a new, unconstrained view of the world. For me, then, the question of freedom was very important, and I felt that the framework for freedom of action connects and necessarily refers art to a socio-political framework - a world of necessity that is largely hostile to the world of freedom of action (Marjanić, Suzana. ˝Razgovor s Marijanom Molnarom (interview)˝. Zarez, June 28, 2007., link: http://www.zarez.hr/clanci/razgovor-s-marijanom-molnarom).
According to Tihomir Milovac, this is activism in which the artist is petitioning for the democratization of art and asks citizens to support it. Oppositional activity is manifested in the inability of the signatories to know to whom it will be addressed, and since petitions were not a "well accepted form of expressing your opinion" under socialism and had a strictly political character, participating in such a petition presented the risk of possible social sanctions. It is a subversive work in which the artist "motivates the public and fellow citizens to even agree (...) to sign such a petition".
Marijan Špoljar sees a framework of the "For the Democratization of Art" series in different forms of the same slogan (flyer, banner, proclamation, photograph) and in “the form of the agitative act of revolutionary groups who question the boundaries of artistic activity and provoke suspicion in the systems of social control of art. Molnar mentions these systems of control in his previously cited text, in which he states that art is ‘forced to radicalize its viewpoints and demands in a clear confrontation with the system, striking at the very foundation of that system.’ With this kind of approach, Molnar directly indicates that the socialist system controls art, and expresses the need for democratization or liberation of art from political pressure.” (Špoljar, Marijan. ˝Mentalne konstrukcije Marijana Molnara,˝ in: Molnar, Marijan. Akcije i ambijenti, Zagreb: Naklada MD, 2002, 168-175, 170).
