Irena Paskali

“Emanation-Empathy” two channel video installation, 2012

The video installation „Emanation-Empathy“ can be interpreted in different ways. On the one hand it conveys an idea that is clearly expressed as a special fight for a new world that will be more efficient, nobler, without any sterility, stereotypes and uninventiveness. This fight’s way reminds one of climbing up symbolically presented stairs whose form emphasizes the striving and endurance of the slow walking that is at the same time a movement towards new forms of life and towards freedom.  On the other hand, the video installation brings up associations of the complex topic of the apple that not only provoked the banishment from paradise, the dispute in the court of Paris but that also stands as symbol for the gravitation according to Isaac Newton.

All these associations are actually a metaphor for the things that surround us in reality and they stand for the contrary form and the resisting power in all separate advanced developments that take place in artistic and cultural structures as well as in socio-political processes.

The video installation suggests a point of view according to which the present is more and more part of the past and the social values are actually nothing more than metaphysical subjective illusions. This new interpretation of the time dimension and the social values leads at the same time to demystification or demythologization that takes on the form of a constant feeling of futility and sacrifice. According to Markuze that means that one cannot imagine freedom like the realization of something that is nowadays called utopia, or in other words,  this freedom stands in opposition to the reality that still gets mythologized within one’s own frames without having the opportunity to escape out of these frames.

Despite that the video installation displays an explicit and rational atmosphere that confronts an irrational reality that can be easily revealed as well as a rational reality that can be barely hidden or suppressed.  With the video installation that is presented with two dialectically positioned projections telling their own story the author creates a world of poetic illusion and harmony that, in a certain way, reconciles the irreconcilable and justifies the unjustifiable.

Viktorija Popova

Translation Aleksandra Schmidt Pendarovska

“HOFFNUNG”, Video Performance  2009-2012

Dauer: 4 min.

Camera: Paula Balov, Goranco Georgievski, Dinko Nenov, Arijana Turkovic

The symbol of eternity, the circle – without a beginning and without an end –  is frequently seen as a sign of perfection. In the magic a circle is often perceived as shelter, the person who resides inside a drawn circle, is protected against evil spirits. The pursuit of perfection up to the apotheosis is a major concern of the modern people which is often also pursued through “squaring the circle”. By drawing a circle in front of important political, religious or historical centers of power, I intend to construct a complex perspective, which should point out that the protagonists inside these buildings  should seek outmost Perfection in all of their actions in order to turn the increasingly complex and apparently often unresolvable issues of our modern world to the benefit for all of us.

Locations for shooting :

–       Moscow (Russia), Red Square,

–       Venice  (Italy),  Piazza San Marco,

–       Brussels. (Belgium), in front oft he European Commission,

–       Paris, (France), in front oft the “Arc de Triomphe”,

–       Sofia, (Bulgaria), in front oft he Parliament,

–       Skopje, (Macedonia), former central Commitee

–       Tokyo, (Japan), Samurai-watchtower, eastern garden of the palace of the emperor

–       London, (Great-Britain),  Buckingham Palace

–       Jerusalem, (Israel), Church of the Holy Sepulchre

–       Vienna, (Austria), Hofburg

–       Rom, (Italy), Pantheon

–       Sarajevo, (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Skender-beg, Plato

–       Barcelona, (Spain)  Palau de Generalität (town hall)

–       Berlin, (Germany), Reichstag