CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION

The international exhibition Tense Present reports pessimism from all parts of the world. For a viewer who delves deep into each of the exhibited works, this pessimism becomes a burden too heavy to carry. Drawing attention to the themes explored by the exhibition is certainly not a negative comment; however, the intensity of shocking information does not leave the visitor just emotionally affected, but pretty shaken up. The exhibited projects are a warning. They confront the audience with issues they might not have been confronted with before, or might not have considered them, or have been ignorant about them. The art works educate even those who are active, socially conscious, but not familiar with at least one of the highlighted global issues, as there are simply too many of them. It is sad to see how the daily bombardment with information can make an individual become indifferent. Sadly, they have to choose the object of their concern, because it is impossible for one mind and body to care for it all. Additionally, all horrors and injustice do not even reach the average news follower – people like those to whom Zoran Todorović has tried to deliver beer brewed, namely, from a ‘yellow liquid’ collected at the Belgrade refugee center.

The migration issue is one of the two central themes in the exhibition. It is also central to two different projects drawing their topic from a historical background. The first is Lana Čmajčanin’s overlaying of 35 maps of Bosnia and Herzegovina that re-bordered the land in a time span of 551 years. With the mapping she employs to warn about the banality of borders as an inconsistent criterion for a sense of belonging, and mostly as an unjustified reason for any form of inhumanity. The forgotten past, facts sidelined by general history and those who were ignored or “erased”, are also the subject matter of the interactive-research station Un-war Space, which showcases initiatives and actions of less prominent participants in anti-war activities during the siege of Sarajevo.

Migrations as a consequence of the wars in the Middle East and North Africa have drastically changed the way many countries function. Their reactions originate primarily in fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of losing privileges, and most of all, fear of losing the sense of security. A few years ago, when migrant issues hit our environment like a landslide, the presence of wars has re-entered our consciousness after a long time. All focus was directed to security issues. Protection, and control as its inevitable companion, are precisely the points whose intersection is most prominent in the work of Salvatore Vitale, who followed the swift changes in security measures in Switzerland. These two themes are also intertwined by Michael Takeo Magruder. His two installations employ the Snowden affair and the situation with immigration centers in America, in order to demonstrate two completely opposite viewpoints on security. While one of them focuses on personal data attacks, the other explores the physical state of migrants, who often endure much worse conditions in the hope of escaping a miserable situation. This transition is the subtle focus of Milan Erič’s colorful large mural canvases, and Mladen Miljanović’s step-by-step instructions, which, without sugarcoating, as if it were an entirely commonplace activity, provides tips (in the form of illustrations) on the most effective way of bypassing obstacles or crossing a heavily secured border. While Miljanović’s Didactic Wall is an illustration of potential situations, the investigation The Left-toDie Boat Case by Forensic Oceanography (Charles Heller, Lorenzo Pezzani), is one of many true and tragic migration wave stories. The migrants’ route and all their interactions with vessels and aircraft unfolds in front of our eyes. Nobody helped. Nine persons survived.

Advanced technology, used to harm the ‘co-habitants’ of the planet and at the same time designed to protect individuals (even though it takes away their sense of freedom by intensifying fear and through consequent escalation – Vitale, Magruder), is another key highlight of the exhibition. Advanced technology can be helpful and used to build an ideal architecture, a place for everyone, without catastrophic consequences for the environment, as suggested by Suzana Brborović. The positive mindset continues in the direction of ecology, in the plant-technological hybrids of Boštjan Drinovec; yet only a few steps further the visitor gets reminded again of technology’s possible militarization, by demonstrating the procedures for aircraft use in the Israeli army, which releases herbicides onto the occupied Gaza Strip in Palestine. This has tremendous consequences on the quality of life of the population and, ultimately, affects the increasingly rapid degradation of the entire planet (Forensic Architecture’s Center for Contemporary Nature). The duality of technology is present in every one of its aspects. If we intensify technology, and consciously render technology more and more autonomous, it becomes incomprehensible and less and less manageable (Tadej Vindiš). The unexpected impact that technology can have on us, or vice versa, was the

focus of work by Claudia Robles-Angel. In her interactive interface SKIN, our emotions control the technology, but it is precisely emotions that are one of the least predictable human characteristics. In this case, the program measures the moisture of our skin, which reflects our mental and physical condition. So, once again, we are at a point where technology is one step ahead of us, and where it reacts to certain elements, which we ourselves are unable to master. At the same time, it is powerful enough to absorb us. We look for exits in technology and create our own safe worlds (the BridA collective). We change our way of thinking and become slaves to screens, whose content is capable of transforming our mental state. The psychological effect of technology on human beings is enormous. The YoHa tandem tries to understand and help drug addicts, who can easily be compared to the average social network user, at least to some extent. Barbora Kleinhamplová’s installation presents the problem of a growing need for anti-depressants for people who ‘want for nothing’ with a metaphor of privileged youth, trapped on a yacht in the middle of the ocean. They are suffering from ‘seasickness’, but this ‘illness’ is treated with pills that have almost the same ingredients as antidepressants.

The exhibition paints a picture of our present, which is still in the claws of the past. Together they are alarmingly casting a dark shadow over our future. By navigating the space of Tense Present, one is surrounded by projections, canvases and billboards; confronted with maps, screens, constructions, instructions, and especially with warnings. All of this, and inconceivably more, was going on, and is still going on. In a world governed by the rule of the strongest (richest, most privileged, most ruthless), which is clearly shown in the installation Kill the Poor (Conny Blom); there is little hope of things improving. The easiest thing to do is to cover oneself with a blanket that shrouds the negative happenings, to shield oneself from them so they do not come too close. This blanket keeps a comfortable distance of ignorance, unless, of course, the problem is looking us straight in the eye. The exhibition Tense Present uncovers the blanket and leaves little room for positive fantasies. However, there still awaits Iva Tratnik’s moth, whose megalomaniac image calls for a transformation of conditions... mental, environmental, social and political. 

Barbora Kleinhamplová Sickness Report, 2018

YoHa - Graham Harwood in / and Matsuko Yokokoji Database Addiction, 2015-2018 Table of Tables, 2015