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Na današnji dan (ili 25. maj & ja) is a site-specific video instalation which deals with the relationship between
the history and the individual experience through the context of 25 May, or the Youth Day.
The Youth Day was a national holiday in the former Yugoslavia, as well as the official birthday of its former
president Josip Broz Tito. Introduced by Tito in 1957 and celebrated until 1987 (7 years after his death) it
would start each year with carrying of the National Relay all around the Yugoslavian territory and its former
republics, and it was accompanied by various manifestations organized in each town and city. The central celebration
though was held on 25 May, when the Relay would arrive in Belgrade to the stadium of Yugoslavian
National Army (now Partizan Stadium). This is where the final and biggest manifestation called "Slet" would
take place, and Tito would receive the Relay. The whole Slet spectacle, which included massive gymnastic
exercises and music repertoire would have been filmed and transmitted directly on the national television.
Composed of two simultaneous videos, the work investigates the personal everyday memory in relation to 25
May through a mixed collage of the extracts from the interviews presented in a TV monitor, revolving around
a dozen of people – all former citizens of Yugoslavia and direct testimonies (and actors) that historical moment.
The "trigger" for this quasi documentary reconstruction of the memory was the generational gap which
divides myself as the author from the historical period that the Youth Day belonged to. As all of those born
after Tito's death, my first memories formed in the final phase of the Yugoslavian era and of the Youth Day
are defined mostly by the private and family sphere, unaware of the broader collective context. My experience
present mostly a construct of the "posthumous" historical interpretations and mostly is borrowed from the
family stories, albums, postcards and personal objects. That is where my "artistic survey" - from my close surrounding,
my family members, relatives, neighbours and friends - as a sort of selected circle of my personal
historic figures.
The "interview compilation" is accompanied by a video projection showing the Parizan Stadium in Belgrade.
While imitating in style the TV reportages of Slet manifestations, it shows the stadium in its current state,
which lacks almost completely the marks of its history, and in its everyday light – far away from the lights of
reflectors and the festive atmosphere of the former national spectacle. The only element which alludes on its
historical background is my performance in the centre of the stadium, while reinacting the parts of Slet choreography.
The performance amplifies the biographical aspect of this artistic investigation into the phenomenon
of 25 May, but it is also an ironical commentary that wishes to stress the mission-impossible character of the
work’s «goal» itself – to find and transmit a direct individual experience and the «truthful» in the collective
experience defined (and therefore limited, condamned) by the dimension of past and historisation.
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Na današnji dan (ili 25 maj & ja)
Today in History (or 25 May & I)
2011
video installation
video screened on TV (DVPAL 16:9, colour-sound)
and video projection (HD 16:9, colour-sound)
played simultaneously
31 min
Coming soon ...
Coming soon ...
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