INSTALLATION AT 18th STREET ARTS CENTER, SANTA MONICA, USA
2008
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for the event of opening of the exhibition «War as the Way of Life» I have decided to create a work that will reflect some of my views on subjects such as war
I didn't want to make work that speaks directly about the horrors of war; killing, dying, sorrow and pain
for me the most terrifying things are the way people are convinced to hate each other; how the intolerance grows, what the consequences are and how deeply those things remain in your life
mechanisms which are used to reach this goal are almost always the same and with my work I wanted to point some of them
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IN HOC SIGNO VINCES (The Flag)
Latin- In This Sign You Shall Conquer
aluminum foil, 190 x 120 cm
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one of the first things is creating the national unity, raising pride and sense of glory, belonging to a specific group, nationality, population
in this case I used the flag as a mark of belonging
we identify with a nationalistic icon, it becomes your trademark; by being born in certain place we assume identity of it
I created a metal, anonymous flag, it can be any flag of the world
you can identify with it
by assuming one particular identity you are expected to reject any other
the title is in Latin, and this phrase was used during the Crusades wars, when the Christians fought against the Muslims (the infidels ones)
no mater what the cause, you are supposed to act as expected
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LULLABY
power horns, sound, 51 min, loop
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raising the feeling of belonging is subject of this work
I used National anthems that are played one after another
I also made a choice of the words from these anthems, extracting only beautiful words such as love, freedom, liberty, happiness, glory
those words are supposed to make us more aware of our identity
the choice of National anthems that I used for this work are: only anthems of those countries that had war or arm conflict from 1990 till now
I decided to use year 1990 as a point of departure (same year the Berlin wall was destroyed, time when we celebrated the end of Cold War, year that was supposed to be start of new era, peace era)
fact: from 1945- 1989 there were 114 war conflicts in the world, from 1990 until now we had 70 and 32 are ongoing (by Wikipedia)
number of wars, in post- Cold War period is doubled
how wrong we were
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PURIFICATION
aluminum foil, cans, straws, cardboard, LED light
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another step that happen is extraction of every non wanted element
after extraction we try to get rid of them
everyone who is different is unwanted (by race, color, religion, or someone that think different, intellectuals, dissidents...)
for this work I created showers
instead of water you have rays of light that «illuminate», «purify» you
the setting evokes Nazi Concentration Camps, where instead of water, gas was used
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SAFE FROM HARM
aluminum foil, tape
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a fence is surrounding you
after all these beautiful things that are promised (love, happiness, freedom...) you are in the ambiance that limits you
closed, trapped
limits are both intellectual and personal
lack of basic freedom, lack of choice
by the promise of keeping you safe and protected you are controlled, imprisoned
I have used everyday materials to create works
those that you can buy in every grocery store. In this way I wanted to show how much these manipulation is infected and part of our life; how the things such as hate, intolerance, non- understanding are becoming a way of life
INSTALLATION AT 18th STREET ARTS CENTER SANTA MONICA, USA_video
