Title of work: "Cena spektakla / The Price of A Spectacle"

One of the biggest spectacles to take place this year were the Olympics in Beijing. Many share the opinion that the Chinese organised the best games in the history. The opening ceremony was, with its beautifully synchronized performances of volunteers, simply breathtaking. However, what was the true price of this spectacle? Besides the 33 million euros which the Chinese invested in building the Olympic infrastructure, rebuilding and beautification of the town, the steepest price had been paid by the citizens of  older, poorer city districts. For the reason the Chinese wanted to exhibit themselves at their best, the old had to pave way for the new. A million and a half people had been violently evicted, and their homes razed to the ground.

The video-installation is set up in a room, in the form of a projection with two different videos on both sides of the screen, the screen itself is being hung up in the middle of the room. The video-installation is a visualization of a well-known saying – every rose has its thorn (Vsaka medalja ima dve plati). On the bright side (of the medal) we can enjoy the official Olympic Anthem, full of positive messeges of hope, friendship and joy, being sung by famous Chinese pop singers. The dark side (of a medal), is being represented by a vast amount of documented footage about people being evicted and their struggle for their rights. The footage is intertwined with amateur clips of actual evictions and violence, which I got hold on through Internet.

In the majority of my videos I use movie and television clips, which I edit and then put into new narrative structures. These forms have been, this far, quite short, but on this occasion I tackled a more longer and a narratively cleaner form, which is very close to the documentary approach. I formally classify my artistic approach amidst the application of »found objects«, in this case, »found footage«. Found, in this case, does not mean that I accidentally ran into them (clips), but that I deliberately searched them with a purpose of creating a whole new story – my own perception, commentary on a certain topic.

Vesna Bukovec

SHORT BIO:

Vesna Bukovec is born in Ljubljana in 1977. MFA Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana (2006). Participated in many international exhibitions (11. Biennial of the Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean, Athens (2003), 25. International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (2003), Young Art Europe, MOYA Museum of Young Art, Vienna (2005), 26. International biennial of graphic arts, Ljublana, The First Line, Ljubljana (2005), Territories, Identities, Nets, Slovene Art 1995-2005, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana (2005), Fragmented Show, C/O Careof, Milano (2006), Tina B. Festival - Mobile video art, Prague (2007) ...) and several residencies (Montescaglioso, Basilicata (Italy) in 2002, Nottingham (UK) in 2004, Graz (Austria) and Gorizia (Italy) in 2006). In her works she employs various media such as video, photography, text, publications and public interventions. She is a member of art group KOLEKTIVA (Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar, Metka Zupanič).

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Website: www.vesna-bukovec.net, www.kolektiva.net