Video: HD 1080p,16:9, PAL, color, loop / audio: mp3
The tourism of war is a video audio installation that talks about the Illusion of freedom. The migration has always been a part of the human existence; first migrations have started over 2bilon years ago. Now we are closing the borders in front of the people running away from war, for which we are all responsible. What hypocrisy. However, by closing the borders we are also closing our self’s in and limiting ours on freedom. The video represents a sea to cross to an island in the distance that represents hope but the island is Goli otok and it was a prison from 1948-1988. Let us not turn hope into a prison. In this time of globalization, do not be fooled that it is not happening to you, and become a war tourist. What is happening to them can easily happen to you, it happened to my country just 25 years ago. The sound on the headphones is screaming open the borders, from loud to total silence.
The work was made for the project Stories from the Edge A road trip through the hyper- and hypo-identity of places along the North-Adriatic coast. On January 26 the second trip of the Stories from the Edge camper sets off on the road, with artists Nayari Castillo and Kate Howlett-Jones at the wheel and supported by curator Francesca Lazzarini. The project investigates the identity of tourist resorts along the coast of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Slovenia and the Istrian Croatian coast during the low season. Serving as an itinerant osmizza*, the van will serve as a point of encounter, hospitality and production, a place of artistic research that does more than simply provide food. Following in the tradition of osmizze – rustic inns which by Josef II of Austria’s decree had permission to open just eight days a year (the word osmizza comes from the Slovenian osem, meaning eight) – the van sets up in eight different places. Six of these are in situ along the coast, with two final ones in Trieste, Italy and Graz, Austria. Exhibitions will also be held here presenting the works created from the project. The six stops are split into two journeys: the first, which took place at the beginning of May, visited Lignano, Portorož and Rovinj. The second journey, at the end of January, will make stops in Grado (Wednesday 27th, 11am, in piazza Duca D’Aosta), Piran (Friday 29th, 11.30am) and Poreč (Saturday 30th, 12pm). At every stop along the way, an osmizza will be run from the camper, where the artists invite local inhabitants to come and share their experiences of the place and its identity. The encounters will be mediated by the presence of six other invited artists – one in each town – who will join Stories from the Edge and create their own works related to the theme, each in a relevant locality and using their preferred medium. The six invited artists are: Polonca Lovsin (Slo), Ryts Monet (I), Renata Poljak (Hr), Pila Rusjan (Slo), Nika Rukavina (Hr), Alessandro Sambini (I). The last two legs of the journey will be the exhibitions at MLZ Art Dep, Trieste (14 April 2016) and at Kunsthaus Graz (16 June 2016) where the finished works and materials collected during the journey will be exhibited. Stories from the Edge is organised by the Daily Rhythms Collective in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Graz and MLZ Art Dep, with partners Gruppo Immagine and Spazio5. It was made possible by the financial support of the Cultural Department of the Region of Styria and with additional contributions from the Alpe AdriaAllianz.
NIKA RUKAVINA 