Reinvention: Balkan art in Thessalonica, Greece
Nancy Atakan
courtesy of the artist
Magda Carneci, the curator for Cosmopolis, Microcosmos X Macrocosmos, an exhibition of 100 Balkan artists held at the State Museum of Contemporary Art and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessalonica, Greece, defined the role of the artist: "to reinvent a dignified and conscious position for Humans in the universe." As a participating artist in this exhibition, I decided to review the show using this definition as a reference point.
Carneci personally invited eight artists to participate: Costas Tsoclis, Vlasta Delimar, Braco Dimitrijevic, Vadim Fishkin, Sanja Ivekovic, Wanda Mihuleac/Alain Snyers, Paul Neagu, and Milica Tomic. In order for an artist to reinvent the world, he or she must criticize present systems. Collaborators Wanda Mihuleac and Alain Snyers did just that. They presented images from an election farce they had organized in the outskirts of Paris. With their fictional candidates, fake statements, false ballot box and pretend election results, they pointed out the absurdity of European electoral campaigns by actually playing out the theatrical absurdity.
Work that reinvents must propose a new model. As early as 1973, long before hybrid forms became fashionable, Paul Neagu made beautiful ink drawings of grids, human figures, spirals of DNA, as well as two dimensional and cellular models.
Work that reinvents must address politically controversial issues. Dimitris Xonoglou’s The Factory addressed issues relating to the challenge facing the 21st century to recover from the ecological disaster created by industrialization. With its dark comedy, Xonoglou’s installation pointed out the falsehood of statements issued by businesses about the safeness of exhaust fumes. He combined a wooden factory-like structure with video monitors, which pictured a socially unacceptable fume, a fart.
In Igor Tosevski’s Perfect Balance 27 Kilos of Human Rights, he asked if the weight of words can really be measured. His installation consisted of stacks of outdated reports, charts, and propaganda papers from United Nation’s Human Rights committees balanced on scales traditionally used in local markets in the Balkans. Everyone realizes that these traditional scales have gradually become extinct. But, what will replace them? How do we measure the worth of something? How do we judge content? Nedko Solakov’s, The Deal, a video of a performance from 2002, ironically questioned an economy based on commissions. He gave a 1000 Danish kroner bill to the Head of Communications at the Herning Institute of Business Administration and Technology to be converted to US dollars, back into kroner and back into US dollars or euros until the money was reduced to small change.
Work that reinvents must criticize contemporary society. As Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanoff stared at me from two monitors their faces were serially drenched with splashes of water. Wet Contact forced me to ask basic questions about survival in a contemporary society where a new trauma strikes before we have recovered from the last. Hristina Ivanoska’s work, Homelessness as Home, also stimulated me to question civic freedoms and the capacity for survival in today’s world. She developed a garment that could be used as a shelter, a raincoat, a suitcase and a chair suitable for the contemporary nomad refugee. Najada Hamza’s series of works featured pregnant stomachs wrapped in flag-like garments–questioning our globalized society, one populated and influenced by innumerable nationalities, insiders and outsiders, citizens and refugees.
Work that reinvents must be idealistic. Aemilia Papaphilippou’s installation Chess Continuum-Logos Scheme (What a burden to travel light) used string to weave a room-sized cross that shimmered under blue florescent lights. She needed the assistance of two people, one of whom was a Turk, to share in the task in order to materialize her work, thus representing in actual terms our need for interchange and reciprocal relationships. I found this symbolic act a hopeful gesture–finding solutions to Greek/Turkish disputes was particularly important on December 17th, 2004, the day that the European Union agreed to consider Turkey for membership and the date for the opening of this show. One of the impediments to Turkey’s acceptance is their dispute with Greece over Cyprus. Likewise, by joining the work of four artists from Turkey, Greece, Turkish Cyprus and Greek Cyprus who live between countries, religions, and cultures in four consecutive rooms as one art work, Ali Akay simulated de-identification through de-territorialization.
Work that reinvents asks difficult questions. I installed a 4 meter long pink neon sign on the outside of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, a converted monastery that asked "Why not two gods?" By turning this question into an artwork, I hoped to motive spectators to question aspects of today’s political, societal, and religious climate. I believe that only by asking a question can the process of formation or reformation begin. Why do we accept "one God" as well as other concepts such as secularism or democracy as uncontested truths? Since the natural world consists of male and female, why not also have a female ‘god’? Why accept only one world power? Why accept only one authority? Why must everyone speak English? Why, in this era of continual movement, flux, and displacement, is a person expected to accept only one life style?
Ten additional curators from ten different Balkan countries (Branislava Andjelkovic, Ruxandra Balaci, Nada Beros, Genco Gulan, Eleni Laperi, Suzana Milevska, Miltiades M. Papanikolaou, Ivana Udovicic, Maria Vassileva, and Igor Zabel) brought their artist’s work to the exhibit. However, the spaces were not organized and delineated along national lines. Could this have been a conscious move by Carneci to present a model for a world with more fluid boundaries? Could this be a suggestion about a more positive "position for Humans?" As a participant, I shared an exhibition space with strangers, experienced the chaos of setting up together, the excitement of watching their work gradually get installed, and the pleasure of solving problems collaboratively. When I left Thessalonica I realized that this exchange had helped to establish friendships, better understanding, and a possibility for future communication.
