The Drug of the Natyon

Lutkovno gledalisce Ljubljana, Ljubljana, 14. Oct. 1996, 21.00
Galerija SOU - Kapelica, Ljubljana, 14. Oct. 1996, 22.00

"the Phoenix project", the Kronborg ferry, Copenhagen, 30. Oct. - 2. Nov. 1996



Marko 
A. Kovacic
 


 


 


 


Brane
Zdralo


 


Miran
Pesic
 


Katarina
Staric


Rok Sieberer - Kuri

The authors of The Drug of the Natyon project are artists living and working Ljubljana - Slovenia - Central Europe. Beside the individual, mostly multimedia art practices, most of us already worked in joint projects. The concept of the “work in progress“ is a challenge for all of us, through which we want to give our contribution to and present our views on “the relation of contemporary man to work and time“, the theme of the international Phoenix project, initiated by Trans Europe Halles. Our main objective is to place a human and his/her consciousness into the centre of happening. Human perception is formed and transformed through work, which takes place in time. This perception is frequently prone to confusion as a consequence of the fact that we live in the age of information, and that information are communicated to us apparently (un)selectively and that we accept them apparently voluntarily. On the other hand it is a question of the overdosing of information, which pushes a person into the position where he/she has no chance of selection. TV as a medium which - contrary to other media - fuses sound, picture and words, takes over the entire human attention. It forms part of daily life, it is fully assertive medium, it actually presents an audiovisual image and information in whose creation we ourselves cooperate. With our project we want to point out that the chance to choose is not offered by the TV remote-control unit, nor by the seemingly selective changing of programmes, but should be reached through the qualitative change of the relation of contemporary man to information-communication media. In this framework the artists will through various art forms (dance, visual arts, music, etc.) communicate with each other and with the audience. The performers will play with various contents and contexts of the monitor stadium. "Having the TV remote-control unit in their hand", actually taking over the role of remote control, the artists will show their view on the relation of work and time. The TV medium as a main subject of the performance will be used as a metaphor for the perverted relation of contemporary man to work and time, and the installation "Velodrome Online" (with the use of Internet) as a metaphor for contemporary man captured in the world of visual reality and the exaggerated strive for information.
produced
by: 
Forum Ljubljana
 

coproduced
by: 
VPK
 

the project was brought to Copenhagen in association by: 
Retina
 

sponzored
by:
Intertrade Computers,
Videm papir,
Rog p.o.,
Induplati,
Valkarton,
Cicero d.o.o.,
Elektronika Velenje,
Vitacel,
KGB - ZOD
 

financed
by:
Open Societey Institute
- Slovenia,
SCCA - Ljubljana,
MOL,
Ministrstvo za kulturo,
Urad vlade za informiranje
 

special thanx to:
the 
Ane Monro theatre,
Jaka Mihelic,
KUD France Preseren,
Gorenje.