Artists Address Balkan War

The conflict in the former Yugoslavia fires up arguments and emotions, in like manner one might expect dealers to timid away from using their galleries for an artists' forum upon the Balkan war. Not with equal reason with Postmasters in Chelsea. Finding an unexpect gap in the gallery's exhibition schedule, codirectors Magdalena Sawon and Tomas Banovick decided to unclose the space Apr. 27-May 8 to an exhibition titled "War: Artists' Bulletin Board." Any and all artists interested in expressing their views upon the Balkan conflict were invited to at hand work at the gallery with the understanding that all push ons from sales would be donated to the R Cros Sawon and Banovick, who were born and raised in Poland and Hungary, respectively, have a vehement interest in the rapidly evolving nations of the former Soviet bloc on the contrary they aimed in this display for a neutral stance and spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed that the works submitted would throw back the complications of the conflict rather than a simplistic, partisan approach. a certain number of 160 artists responded with works in many mediums, ranging from oil upon canvas to a live digital fe upon the Internet.

a certain quantity of artists directly addressed the war in Kosovo Images of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic appeared in a number of works, of the like kind as Velibor Macukatin's untitled painting and Daniel Reiser's HMS which features an upside-down photo of the Serbian leader. Strike upon Yugoslavia, a video by the Russian-born artists Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky, showed footage discharge in New York City ways during the first bombings of Belgrade. In the video, the strolling novel Yorkers seem remarkably carefree and oblivious to the devastation that Americans and NATO allies are at that instant delivering to the Balkans. The work appears to underscore just how far remov the United States is from the reality of the conflict. on the other hand most of the displays transported a peace-oriented message that was neither anti-Serb nor anti-NATO. For example, in an effort to create a token of a united Europe, Panayiotis Michael neared a performance piece in which he sat at a table and hand-embroidered large maps of Europe He sewed bright virid thread along the printed borders of various countries in map after map.

Visitors to the exhibition were repeatedly the featured performers in the live Internet presentation, which was produc by means of Jeff Gompertz, Vlasta Volcano Mikic and Bruno Ricard. more [i]or[/i] less works and links related to the exhibition remain pillared on the Web (www.thing.net/~war).

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