Syndicate: Igor Antic: HUMANITARIAN

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

From: Vesna Rajcic <vesnarajcic@hotmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: igor hitno poslati
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 23:00:11 PDT


>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 15 JUNE 1999
>
>HUMANITARIAN
>a project by Igor ANTIC
>at the 48th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Venice
>Biennale: APERTO overALL
>
>The inauguration of the 48th Venice Biennale unfolds in the shadow of
>the Yugoslav conflict. The use of the word HUMANITARIAN has escalated
>wordwide in direct proportion to the mass of victims. With its
>universal emotional charge, the word HUMANITARIAN has gained currency
>as a sort of reverse hallmark, validating atrocities; it has been
>rendered meaningless. HUMANITARIAN aid- HUMANITARIAN rallies- a
>HUMANITARIAN war.
>
>Igor Antic has applied this over-familiar term to yet another context,
>assuming the role of a "refugee" squatter amongst the national
>pavillions diring the Biennale inauguration. The project was designed
>to mirror reality as closely as possible, within the confines of a
>venue in which individual countries present their cultural aspirations.
>
>Antic rested, ate and placed himself in relation to various artworks.
>Visitor's attention was focussed upon the squatter's presence and
>action through the use of several dozen white plastic carrier bags,
>bearing the word HUMANITARIAN printed in red. Installed around his
>temporary encampments, or attached to his itinerant person, these
>accessories to which no "aesthetic" value might be attached, acquired a
>purely symbolic function. A plastic bag is a shapeless, worthless and
>familiar object, which may serve as a suitcase, wrapper, garment,
>construction material, territorial marker- even a status symbol.
>
>The main question Antic's HUMANITARIAN project adresses are:to what
>extent has political discourse contaminated the world of art? Are
>artworks affected by the context in which they are exhibited? Are we
>really able to resist national rhetoric, manipulation by media,
>bureaucratic jargon, appeals to surrender to our own agressiveness,
>hatred and indifference? In the flood of quasi-democratic verbiage,
>freedom's boundaries have shrunk: where now can artists take shelter?
>
>A recto-verso flayer bearing two emblematic images was produced to mark
>Antic's action: the close-up of a terrain devasted by an explosion, and
>the view of a plot delineated by plastic-bag markers. This document is
>available at the Biennale Press Office.
>
>ABOUT THE ARTIST:
>
>Igor Antic was born in Novi Sad(Yugoslavia) in 1962. His site-specific
>work aims to explore and highlight the economic and political forces
>operating within a given context. Antic creates objects and situations
>as physical 'grids', beyond which emerges the social, cultural or
>geographical context of the chosen site.
>
>After studies at the Novi Sad Fine Arts Academy, Antic attended the
>Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beauw-Arts and the Institut des Hautes
>Etudes en Arts Plastiques (Paris). In 1995 he founded the 'Pokret'
>Encounter center in Novi Sad.
>
>Igor Antic has participated in numerous group exhibitions in France,
>Germany, Greece, Island, Japan and Yugoslavia. He has recently held
>one-man shows at the Chinati Foundation (Texas) and La Chambre Blanche
>(Quebec).
>
>e-mail: igorantic@yahoo.com
>
>INFORMATION BY LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION, FRANCE


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