REDIMEJDI are series of artworks created in the period of 2003-2007.
Central part of my research within this project is the ready-made object and the meta content it can offer.
Through the process of melting, accumulating, increasing/reduction, multiplication, decomposition I to come to realization of several solutions.
The last work from REDIMEJDI is the solo exhibition Reflected distances, with a working title Replaced spaciousness, exhibited in Kurshumli An where I had replaced the gallery space with a ready-made object where I placed the observer inside the artwork.
With the actual choice of a massive ready object, it was expected that I will face difficulties in realization of my project. The expectations were confirmed since the beginning – in finding the bus, as well as in it’s transportation to the work location – my back yard.
Through the process of disassembly, cutting, welding, merging and reassembling, I reached the desired solution. Shortly, I made a shceme by which each of the parts of the bus is reassembled inside the gallery, of cource with several small alterations due to the needs of the space in order to achieve more complete final visual impression.
During the explanations how to technicly process the work, a problem emerged – a need of elimination of the hight level to the floor (the stares of the bus). But, the same technical problem turned out that it is not a problem for the final impression of the created artwork, since the object is a substitution for the gallery space, hence the floor placement is suitable.
In terms of experiencing of the artwork, I chose a suitable space – Kurshumli An, whose gallery by chance completely matched the dimensions of the bus, or vice versa – that for me of corse was a proper solution. Having in mind the cultural-historical value of the gallery space, I believed that the moment of being and perceiving the bus in that space as an art work shall cause (in my opinion) multilayered experience.
If the bus is replacing the gallery space, then what is going on in the gallery, i.e in the bus itself?
What is the minimal code that needs to be found in order for the art work to function?
I believed that having in mind the function and the history that the bus has, the accent should be put on movement. Since the Bus replaces and is the gallery space, the movement shall be present as an illusion that will contribute to the further shaping of the space and will cause certain dynamics, that now captured in a visual estetical version will stimulate an unordinary jurney.
In order to achive an illusion of movement, I choose lights in red color as a symbol of energy, that form a line, separately go on and off in a certain short time interval, placed in a parallel manner on the right and left side. All of that is happening continuously and fast, so the recipient has a feeling that they are in some unusual transportation vehicle.
On the back window there is a screen projection of moving clouds, which in my opinion have a projective power, whose movements are slow and difficult to notice at first. The movement of the clouds is in depth in order to preserve the visual balance.
Through the front window of the Bus and through the only window of the gallery, a view over the architecture of the Old Skopje Bazaar is available (a moment of multilayered transparency). I used that conscientiously and included it as an integral element that added the work a moment of the everyday outside reality.
The controlled density of the viewers and their circulation, the controlled dymanimcs of the light and the clouds, as well as the realized contact with the outside reality through the transparent form a movement on four lines present in the work.
As an additional moment that will contribute to the creation of an image of what is going on inside the gallery, a placed a person that will act as a guard. That person becomes unseparate or integral part of the work. With their instructions will dimension the other nature of that “trivial” mean of transportation, through previously devised gesture intended for the visitors. The instruction would be “Have a pleasant journey!”. At the same time, every visitor would receive one marble – that small, thrilling ball of glass – small piece of artwork, now actually a part of the whole of the work. They would have a chance to take a souvenir from that spacial-contextual journey. The work exsist as long as the exhibit exsists, then another disassembly and transportation to the original location follows.
The installation, i.e the work is placed and disappears. The permanence is replaced with the impressions that match the superficial character of today’s cognition – Hans Belting.
Go to REDIMEJDI photo galery