WONDERLAND
Wonderland, 2002
The video installation consists of one video projection and two TV sets. Dimension variable.
Disc 1 : 2 min, 10sec (the projected video);
Disc 2 : 30 min (video on two TV sets);
sound collaboration with Pascal Broccolichi.
Neon sign : Si je pouvais dire seulement une fois je te suivrai jusqu’au bout du monde. ( if only I can once say I’ll follow you until the end of the world )
L’exposition regroupe sous le titre Wonderland, le pays des Merveilles de Lewis Carroll, une drôle d’invitation au voyage.
Un néon bleu, seule source de lumière, d’un lettrage élégant, emplit l’espace d’un espoir et d’une déception, écrire avec la lumière, prononcer presque, c’est empêcher : Si je pouvais dire seulement une fois je te suivrai jusqu’au bout du monde. A cet ailleurs du désir répond l’ailleurs du passé, une installation vidéo enrichie d’une photographie évoquent une Yougoslavie perdue. Crveni Markovi (Coquelicots rouges) - la chanson des jeunes pionniers yougoslaves à la mémoires des partisans, le rouge sang des coquelicots, la voix de l’artiste récitant des fragments de Alice, Sarajevo aujourd’hui, une enfance à Split hier, une mouche même, l’artiste marchant dans les rues de Sarajevo ou endormie dans l’herbe, tout cela s’entrechoque pour esquisser l’idée de ce pays des merveilles perdu, pour marquer l’ellipse historique entre l’enfance et l’âge adulte (1991-2001). La Yougoslavie d’hier et celle qui n’a plus de nom -celle d’aujourd’hui - sont un seul et même désir, celui de ne pas se réveiller.
Car ce bout du monde est peut-être le résultat d’un rêve : And if he - Tito - stops dreaming about you, where do you think you will be?*
*Lewis Carroll, Through the looking glass : “Et s’il cessait de rêver de vous, où croyez-vous que vous seriez?”
Under the title Wonderland, Lewis Carroll universe of fantasy, the exhibition conveys the idea of a very special invitation to travel.
The only source of light is bleu neon lighting with an elegant lettering. It fills the space with a sense of hope and disappointment. Writing with light, almost pronouncing, is preventing something to happen: if only I can once say I’ll follow you until the end of the world,
si je pouvais dire seulement une fois je te suivrai jusqu’au bout du monde
The desire of elsewhere is met by the elsewhere of the past, a video installation enriched with a photograph evokes a lost Yugoslavia. Crveni Makovi (Red Poppies) the young Yugoslavian pionneers’ song to the memory of partisans, the blood - like red of the poppies, the artist’s voice reciting passages of Alice In Wonderland, Sarajevo today, a childhood in Split yesterday, and even a fly. The artist walking in the streets in Sarajevo or sleeping in the grass, everything jostle together to sketch the idea of the lost wonderland, to show the historical ellipsis between childhood and adulthood (1991-2001). Yugoslavia of yore and the one who hasn’t got a name anymore - today’s Yugoslavia - just one unique desire, that of not been roused.
Because this end of the world may very well be the outcome of a dream: And if he -Tito- stops dreaming about you, where do you think you will be? *
*Lewis Carroll, Through the looking glass
The projected video, entitled Wonderland, shows a mix between private pictures and images of Sarajevo which were shot in 2001. From a series of old private images shot with super 8 camera, we move on to a field of red poppies, opening on Sarajevo in 2001.
During the whole video, one can hear the artist saying excerpts from "Alice in Wonderland":
And if he stops dreaming about you, where do you think you will be?
How can you wake him, when you’re only one of the things in his dream?
I don’t know why you are crying you wont become real that way.
The whole video finishes with an harmonic scene filmed in the city park in Sarajevo. On two TV screens installed in the same space, we can see two looped videos. The video shows a close up of the artist, walking on the streets in Sarajevo, dissolves in the field of red poppies dissolving in the close up of the artist over and over again. There is sound mix with the artist voice singing a song "Crveni Makovi".
The song "Crveni Makovi" (Red Poppies) was most frequently sung during at young pioneer’s ceremonies and this was one of the elements that deeply forged Renata. In the song, red poppies are a metaphor of the partisans’ fight for Yugoslavia.
The song Red Poppies is also used, as a symbol of a common background, evoking the history of a nation which no longer exists.
The sound part of this installation is very important and how different sounds complement each other.
