Turbo Sculpture Is A Video Essay By Alexsandra Domanovic On Public Art In The Balkans
Turbo Sculpture is a video essay by Alexsandra Domanovic which questions the emergence of a new kind of public art in the ex-Yugoslav republics. Her contention is that due to the lack of sufficient reference points, a history in these new states, monuments to heroes of pop culture such as; Bruce Lee, Bob Marley and Rocky Balboa have been erected in many places that were at war during the 90′s. Here’s what he has to say about it:
What interested me about the “turbo sculptures” in the former Yugoslavia was precisely the lack of any apparent local connection to the figures honoured. The inhabitants of Zitiste, in northeastern Serbia, had no immediate link to Rocky Balboa or Sylvester Stallone or Philadelphia, but still they decided to build a monument to Rocky. They believed the character represented noble values which are universal, and also that it would bring media attention to a remote Serbian village, which it did.
The term “turbo sculpture” did not actually exist before – I coined it for the video. But it was a logical continuation of postwar Eastern European genres such as turbo TV and turbo folk and turbo architecture, all of which are based on exaggerations and random amalgamations of the local and global.
Alexsandra Domanovic’s work often takes references to the techno movement which played a unifying role for the young postwar generation in former Yugoslavia. She now lives in Berlin.
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