MAP – Case Study 02

by Diana Popova


The Media Art Programme of InterSpace includes video and web projects by young Bulgarian artists focusing on the obvious and covert contradictions of contemporary (rural) life. In the early 90s the 3rd Istanbul biennial related the megapolis to the notion of a meeting point (collision point) of different cultures in the respective gigantic scale. The megapolis is the4 exception whereas the average city is the rule, we found out at the 4th Manifesta this year in Frankfurt. It is in the average city that the relationships (oppositions) are most severely revealed, and no matter how many layers of cultural histories and individual traits one has, the personality does not blend into the multimillion mass (as in the megapolis), nor do they fall into the nets of close encounters, friendships and relationships (as in the small towns). In any given average town, living a life of semi-anonymous liberty and armed with modern technologies providing the opportunity (illusion) to communicate with the world, the individual person (artist) reacts to the changes of the natural environment and relates those to one’s own ideas (feelings) about globality.

Ivan Moudov’s video shows a city street garbage container used as a urinal by male individuals of all ages. The basic events of disposing of garbage take turns with halting individuals who make use of the corners between the containers and the wall to relief their own urge. It is a sight typical of every city, and by the shape of the container alone might one guess the exact location. But that is far from the point, the point is in the reason for the phenomenon. Beyond the natural calls it is about the subconscious riot against the rules by which the city individual is obliged to go within the conventionality of culture and civilisation. The point is after all in the humaneness – a deeply contradictory notion, in which the understanding of the essence collides with the judgment of the person.

Ivan Moudov also takes part in Zornitsa-Sofia’s video. The story takes place in a Roma neighbourhood… even while typing this I thought of how cautious we tend to be nowadays in using words like “gypsy” and “ghetto”, and that is part of the politically correct complication of life. And so the very elegant couple go into one shack after another, they ritually wash the feet of Roma men and women in turn – the latter extremely ragged and battered by life people who find the entire situation extremely entertaining. The reference to the biblical scene of “Washing the feet” is quite transparent. Similarly to Christ who demonstrated humbleness by washing the feet of his disciples, the elegant couple are making a statement of equality in the eyes of God. Not in reality of course though. The sense of guilt of the prosperous for the existence of poverty and misery is constantly redeemed by gestures of humility and charity. Which by no means changes the ways of the world. On their way out the elegant couple walk past a group of Romas who are having fun round an improvised fire and nobody pays any attention to them. The two societies live each in their own dimensions despite the fact they share the same territory.

Andronika Popova’s work takes the theme further – a small, chubby child is playing with a tire pump. It pushes down with remarkable determination and consistency of which only the children are capable. And it would all have remained at the level of home video hadn’t it been for the fact that against the restless music following the rhythm of the child’s pumping, images from the dull, grey surroundings didn’t come up: shabby trees, a deserted road, a dispassionate train rushing by, and so on. And in the end we see the battered car by which the child with the pump is standing and the no less battered relatives smiling as if specially for the camera. It is obvious that the child’s life will continue into the monotonous, dull, battered existence within the closed borders of the minority.
A different aspect of the parallel lives in the city can be seen in maria Berova’s web project. In “Hunter of City Animals” the energetic advertisements announce, “They are strong and brave.”, and so on – i.e. as if taken out of any Saturday night action movie on TV. And at the same time the shots display the panic-stricken subject of advertising and the hunter: a shaggy dog is running, tail between its legs, to hide, a terrified cat is tiptoeing away… The constant and unresolvable problem of the city – stray animals, an issue every now and then igniting society, dividing it and authorities for and against. And so on and so on…

Daniela Kostova’s video reveals the feelings of the individual in the underlyingly dramatic environment described so far. A game of table tennis against one’s own self – this is the simple description. A concentrated young man is clicking the ball, he’s completely absorbed, disregards all else. The dominating feeling is that of security – the other one cannot harm you, cannot make you feel uncomfortable, cannot beat you at anything – for the other is no other but yourself. Which is the basis of alienation.

In Petar Raichev’s video the dancing couple is communicating to itself under the roof. It bends and twists, it beats leg and powder up before a fancy, numerous audience. And they feel exactly because there is no audience…
Alienation is typical in the relationship with technologies, Boryana P and Ivan Nikolov’s video reveals. The fluorescent electronic sign “No signal” crawls up and down the wavy surface, fooling the eye (and ear) with the overflowing beauty and music of the happening. And when the image gradually focuses we see that the text is projected across a woman’s face. The impossible communication is with… who exactly – whether with equipment, with the person behind the equipment or with one’s own self through equipment…

Communicating through equipment is the problem in Nikolay Chakurov’s web project too, called SMS Story. Once Upon A Time is the beginning which everyone can end appropriately. The age of technology is the age of fabricated stories, fabricated identities and fabricated compassion.

Cultural contradictions in contemporary society is what Petko Durmana and Krassi Terziev find most interesting. The former interviews artists and curators in England about their projects, and reveals a parallel life in “Life, Art, Traveling, Etc.”, equally active as it Is distant from the issues of national societies. Krassimir Terziev looks at the paradoxes and merging of the cultural layers. Scenes from western movies mentioning exotic (and therefore dangerous) Bulgaria have been printed onto T-shirts. As soon as the camera zooms into the shot, the classical film footage begins…

In “Casablanka” the young family flees from Bulgaria hoping for a better life elsewhere. In MAP the artists are not so interested in Bulgaria as they are in the issues of its various societies reflected onto the scale of global processes. And in the process of peering it becomes obvious that the “elsewhere” is nowhere but here.