Myriam Thyes, 2011. Diptych, 2 channel HD video installation, 14:42, stereo.
Languages: Serbocroatian / Bosnian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian; English subtitles.
Installation: 2 synchronized HD media players, 2 upright format HD screens (or HD projections), two pairs of stereo loudspeakers.
OR: 2-in-1 version: one large HD
screen or HD projection, one pair of stereo loudspeakers.
In summer 2010, I participated in the 'Art Colony Galichnik' in Macedonia, together with 10 artists from various Balkan countries. We were hosted by curator Ana Frangovska and her parents, the painter Nove Frangovski, and Nadja Frangovska. We stayed in Leunovo, at the Mavrovo lake. Together we visited several places in the Mavrovo region, and Ohrid. I also visited Skopje, Krusevo, Gostivar, and the archeological site Stobi.
In Leunovo, I asked the participants to answer two questions by speaking to my video camcorder in their mother tongue:
1) Where do you like to live / which is your favourite place ?
2) What would you like to tell the audience (please give a statement) ?
The following people gave their answers:
Ana Frangovska, curator at the National Gallery in Skopje, and director of the Art Colony Galichnik
Nove Frangovski, artist, Skopje, Macedonia, founder and former director of the Art Colony Galichnik
Nadja Frangovska, business economist, from Belgrade, living in Skopje, Macedonia
Suzana Minovska, public relations at the National Gallery in Skopje, Macedonia
Igor Sekovski, artist, assistant professor at the European University of Macedonia, Skopje
Fahredin Spahija, artist, director at the Kosova Art Gallery in Prishtina, Kosovo
Gordana Kaljalovic, artist, Belgrade, Serbia
Nena Sesic-Fišer, artist, from Croatia/Bosnia, living in Utrecht, Netherlands
Nenad Fišer, philosopher, from Sarajevo, Bosnia, living in Utrecht, Netherlands
Georgi Krastev, artist, from Varna, living in Sofia, Bulgaria
Osman Demiri, artist, Gostivar, Macedonia
In the video-diptych 'From Art Colony Galichnik with Love', I combine excerpts of these 'interviews' with other video recordings I filmed in Macedonia. Some central statements are shown as written text in English. The collage of images and interviews gives an impression of cultural and individual diversities and various human dreams, desires, and ambitions - all together existing on a small spot on earth (and perhaps being similar for humans all over the world).
Download this synopsis as PDF | spoken text in the video - English translation (PDF) | im Video gesprochener Text - deutsche Übersetzung (PDF)
