Fragment, computer simulation, 5'55"
The project develops further the idea that the ordinary actions are the best expression of human “nature”, which was the main concept in the video work The Hоt Soup and My Home Community (1998). In the latter all of the participants in the exhibition Bulgarianavantgarde are eating simultaneously a portion of warm soup, while in the present work – eight years later, the idea evolves and the portion of the soup is followed by The Main Course.
In the video installation the ten members of the Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia, are served roasted pork knuckle. While handling the bone, they are actually put in a situation to perform actions as if in a primitive ritual. Like the video from 1998 the work is constructed as a group video portrait which, beside that it characterizes an ordinary everyday activity, is also a document, declaring the common beliefs and tasks of strong individualities. It seams that they enjoy the tasty, well prepared roasted pork knuckle as much as the particular ritual, which is an expression of the accumulated during the years group representation, which has brought about this kind of artist’s professional-primitive associative thinking.
The video installation consists of ten video fragments running separately within a single video wall which is composed of ten monitors arranged in two horizontal rows – five in each row. Equipment: ten video-wall monitors, 4:3, ten DVD players.
The work was realized for the exhibition Neither a White Cube nor a Black Box. History in Present Time (2006), which is the first group retrospective in Bulgaria of the Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia.
Installation view Neither a White Cube nor a Black Box. History in Present Time, Sofia Art Gallery, November 2006
