participants: Kajsa Dahlberg {swe}, Milica Tomič {serbia}, Sanja
Ivekovič {cro}, Little Warsaw {hu}, Keiko Sei {j}, Alexander Kiossev
{bg}
Karlin Hall- Thámova 8, Praha, Česká Republika
24.5. – 16. 9. 2007
The installation model Fragment #5 is part of the Prague Biennale – one
of the largest exhibitions in Central Europe and currently taking place
for the third year since its inception. The installation was filled
with an attempt at an inductive processing of “transformation” based on
individual testimony and definitions by various writers.
Kajsa Dahlberg {swe}
Kajsa Dahlberg is interested in the format of the stereo image - the
two eyed camera- as a tool for investigating the production of an
image; a specific place and moment in time. These photographs, because
of the fact that they are two, bear with them an inherent narrative;
they are a moment in time –doubled. First of them was taken in Libri
Prohibiti (The Library for Prohibited Books) while Mariana Serranová
and Jiří Gruntorád discussing the most widespread samizdat publication;
Orwell´s 1984. The other photo show the Prague Metronome.
The installed artwork of hers A Room of One´s Own/A Thousand Libraries
is a compilation of marginal notes made by the readers in the library
editions of "Ett Eget Rum" by Virginia Woolf.
Milica Tomič {serbia}
Co-autors: Branimir Stojanovic {serbia}, Nebojsa Milikic {serbia}
The Politics of Memory installation includes publications which
visitors may take home with them, in which the ideology of the state
apparatus at the time of transition to another social system is
analysed, and observations are made about the failure of civil
initiatives, the attempt to form a cooperative partnership with the
state, and the effort to formulate state ideology in the area of public
memory.
The ensuing discussion seeks a way out from the labyrinth of memories.
By examining all past decisions, theses, and failures, an effort is
demonstrated to comprehend the moment when the civil initiative grew
into a political subject and began to require new tactics to enter into
the complex game of politics, distanced both from the state and from
civil society.
Branimir Stojanovič, Milica Tomič and Nebojsa Milikič, three members of
the Monument Group, comprised of 30 members in the past, speak together
and map out the field in which this newly risen political subject could
again be visible and functional.
Sanja Ivekovič {cro}
Our Flag (A Flag is a Flag is a Flag), 1990-2007
Video projection, 400 x 300 cm
Little Warsaw {hu}
The project of the two-member group Little Warsaw, entitled Made in
West-Germany (communication booth_model), presents a model of a
telephone booth. The work is based on the premise that the telephone
booth was in and of itself very important at a certain period in the
history of communication, and therefore must necessarily relate to the
political space of the given period. The specific place and time
selected was Berlin from 1968 – 1989. What kind of international scene
emerged here and in what kind of framework? And how can a current work
of art refer to this moment? The telephone booth in this project
becomes an anchor on a symbolic and practical level and evidently also
plays a role as an audio archive. While researching oral history the
artists have found a manner of grasping, defining and describing
various forms of cultural interaction and their place in urban
mythology.
Keiko Sei {j}
In her essay Modern Experiments in Transformation and Adults in
Distress a Japanese art theoretician refers to the cult of animism and
transformation. She starts with Weerasethakul’s film Tropical Malady
and contemplates the transformation process as well as the modern
literary method. In the various stories by Ueda Akinari (Ugetsu
monogatar - Tales of Moonlight and Rain), Junya Ishikawa (The Archer,
The Millennium, The story of mad wind), Atsushi Nakajima (Tiger Songs)
she shows how ancient stories “mono no ke”, stories of apparitions and
spirits, are dynamically transformed in an attempt to adapt to and
engage the minds of people living in the modern world.
Alexander Kiossev {bg}
In his fragmentarily written text A Flaneur in the Mud, Bulgarian
philosopher Alexander Kiossev engages in the relationship between art,
societ and economic transformation in Bulgaria. This text was conceived
for the Monument Transformation project.
