|
|
|
|
Photo 09.05.2001 Berlin
|
"09. 05. 2001 Berlin", 2001/2002 Digital-Photigraphie
"09.05.01.- Berlin" 2001, Digital-Photigraphie
The Foreigner’s Gaze
by
Nebojsa Vilic
The project of Jovan Balov -
Berlin, May 9th, 2001, documents the one-day event on the streets of Berlin
that is penetrating in a multilayered way the actuality and conditions of
the ever more impending neo-Nazism in Germany. Of course, there is a
particular feature to this project as the gaze cast upon this one and same
event is the gaze of a non-German, a foreigner, an alien which is connecting
this ominous phenomenon to an art event.
To be more to the point, Balov
is linking an exhibition of the German artist Neo Rauch which is set-up in
Berlin gallery Solomon Guggenheim, with the advertising campaign of the
weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which in its own part consists of the recent
issue's cover page sporting the photograph of Adolph Hitler with a caption „Hitlers
langer Schatten“ ["Hitler's long shadow"]. Namely, the provocativeness of
painterly and iconographic solutions as offered by Neo Rauch (from whose
name Balov is recovering a pseudonym that refers to the „Neue Reich“ ["The
New Empire"], which is also in accordance with this artist's ideological
attachment to neo-Nazism), makes the situation more involved simply because
these works are displayed in one of the highly verifying and most
influential institutions in the art world of Berlin.
The oddity of a one-day
advertising campaign of the weekly magazine (which is, otherwise, not a
practice with this publisher), as well as its suspiciously convenient timing
with the exhibition timetable, and on top of it, the coincidence of both
advertising campaigns in a same neighborhood - all this provokes additional
doubts about the reasons behind the occurrence of these two advertising and
promotional campaigns mostly in the areas of Berlin which are dwelt by
foreigners.
In regard to the previous
statement, the project actually opens a series of controversies. The events
in Macedonia and in the region have been provoking for several years, and
especially lately, an unexpected phenomenon. In spite of the declared
pro-European political orientations, it seems that the anti-Western European
disposition is gaining ground. Bipolarity of this phenomenon - as determined
by both the political and the one what's been lived through - is asserting
positively or upon a wider basis, the gravity of the situation the subject
from this region is undergoing or facing - yet this time not on theoretical
but, above all, on an existential level. It required confronting this
subject to its position to such a degree or to such an excess so that the
subject itself will succeed in dispersing the illusion which has been
feeding its expectations for several years. Confronting the dead-end - this
subject recognizes its own subalternity and feels the need to express its
own dissent.
Precisely
in such a moment the project of Balov is emerging as a pointer towards the
other side of this same story. Namely, his experience as a Macedonian who's
been living for years in Western Europe, finds its interest in the verity of
that world facing problems which are seriously threatening (once again) the
politically declared freedom and rights. The stress of this project is less
about criticizing these societies and more about drawing the attention to
the ambivalence that these societies have within themselves (or for
themselves) and out of themselves (or towards the others). In case this
event, as recorded and documented by Balov, is but one of many anti-Nazi
advertising campaigns and propagandisms (heretofore present in the German
space and times), than, in view of the already established qualifications of
Nazism in the global public opinion, it is sensible to expect no further
friction to develop about it. Yet again, the ambiguous character of
conceivable interpretations (as well as the current dispute about the
neo-Nazism which is divided pro et contra, or Heider's electoral victory in
Austria, etc.) is deliberately left unresolved, thus preventing to take a
side. This is what Balov sees as a double meaning in reading the name of the
artist - Neo Rauch; or when reading the caption from the cover page with the
shadow equivocally interpreted as "pitifully", "bad luggage", "anguishing
legacy", or as "under Hitler's guardianship"; or, ultimately when he
interrogates the reasons for profusive publicity in blocks and areas of
Berlin that are inhabited dominantly by foreigners. It is obvious that it
has nothing to do with an aspect of freedom and rights of free speech and
expression - which is among the greatest achievements of the democracy.
A more attentive look-in into
the photographs of Balov reveals a series of situations wherein the passers
by caught near the posters are providing some additional associations -
either in an entirely spontaneous way or because these were created by the
choice of the photographer's viewpoint. Motives such as: two boys with a
dog, mothers with children, tram-car, one way traffic signpost and the
advertisement, etc., are in reality interpreted as an openly declared (by
wearing symbols) couple of neo-Nazis while crossing the street and leading
on a leash a German shepherd; the mothers are a black woman and a Turkish
woman; the traffic sign directs - you only go ahead, etc. In other words,
each photograph shows one possible aspect at a time of this (presumed and
expected) situation - criticism or affirmation (?) ...
The gaze of Balov as a non-German is the gaze
of the subaltern who's sending a message to those that are determining the
subaltern as such. This message aims to point at their incongruity, even
more so, to demonstrate that the subaltern is conscious about its own
position, and that it is also not acceding with it.
Prof. Dr. Olav Münzberg
Das
Nachrichtenmagazin „Der Spiegel“. Grosswerbung für den Beginn der Serie
„Hitlers langer Schatten“
in
Deutschland
—
Der makedonische Künstler Jovan
Balov:
Farbfotos
des Covers mit „Gröfaz“ in Berlin in Deutschlands Hauptstadt
Bei
diesen Farbfotos aus den Augen des makedonischen Künstlers Jovan Balov, an
dessen Land gerade der bittere Kelch eines Bürgerkrieges mit dem
albanischen Teil der Bevölkerung mit Hilfe der Europäischen Union
vorbeigeht, könnte man meinen, er sähe in Deutschland den Faschismus
wiederauferstehen.
Er
hat keine platten Formeln für das Land und folgt auch nicht immer wieder
aufgeblasenen Bildern und Forderungen, die teilweise in anderen Staaten
gepflegt werden, etwa von Deutschland die Hände und Füsse zu lassen.
Deutschland weder zu betreten noch anzuschauen noch sich mit dem Land in
seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart auseinanderzusetzen. Derartige Positionen
gibt es überall in Europa und über Europa hinaus. Aber die Positionen, die
in vielen Ländern die Mehrheit darstellen, haben Deutschland nach 1945 wieder eine Chance gegeben.
Dies
kurze Spanne der Präsenz bestimmt auch die Sache: der lange Schatten ist
da, aber auch gleich wieder weg. Beide Aussagen sind richtig. Aber Streit
bricht aus, wenn man sich fragt:
was
versteht man unter des „Gröfazes“ langem Schatten?
„Gröfaz“,
der grösste Führer aller Zeiten, wie ihn viele Deutsche zwischen 1933 und
1945 verächtlich und zugleich von Furcht geprägt nannten. Der Körper ist
weg, aber da ist noch der Schatten, obwohl die Logik sich gegen eine solche
Satzbildung sträubt. Denn ein Schatten - im Sinne von Bewusstseinsresten
des Faschismus, kann nicht mehr da sein, wenn kein Körper mehr vorhanden
ist. Wo kein Körper, da kein Schatten. Oder meint Schatten: Deutschland ist
gezwungen, sich immer wieder von Zeit zu Zeit mit dem Faschismus als einem
Teil der Vergangenheit auseinander zu setzen? „Erinnern, wiederholen,
durcharbeiten“, wie Sigmund Freud dies für psychologische Sondernhänomene
der menschlichen Existenz immer wieder als notwendige Form der Verarbeitung
anmahnte, wenn man nicht auf der Stelle stehen bleiben oder gar regredieren
will.
Die
Konstellation ist wichtig, das weiss der Künstler. Ihn interessieren die
Reaktionen von Menschen auf dieses Plakat, wenn es und insofern es ihnen plötzlich
im Alltag entgegenkommt. Regen sie sich auf? Zucken sie zusammen? Oder lässt
sie das Plakat gleichgültig, weil das Wissen, dass dieser furchtbare Spuk
der Geschichte vorbei ist, mächtiger ist als alle Zweifel am Rechtstaat
Deutschland, wie er sich nach der Verfassung nennt und durchgesetzt hat.
Die
Asthetik des Grauens wirft lange Schatten. In der Demokratie hat sie sich zu
Mahnmalen verwandelt. Denn dann würde der Schrecken für die Zukunft
geworden sein: ein positives, wenn auch immer wieder schwer zu tragendes
Zeichen.
Berlin
den 3.9.200 1
|
