This computer animation was created in 1997 under the title Kiss. The piece came about through a series of formal media experiments which we did in the Netherlands during the 90s. In the piece we employed a computer generated image which we made using a 3D scanner and we created a hologram of sorts of our heads, giving it coordinates and a direction of movement that suggest a movement of intermingling of three-dimensional forms in a two-dimensional projection. In an endless loop, we make references to a series of philosophical and aesthetic questions on individuality, togetherness and the trajectory of a romantic couple’s interactions. What has transpired over a span of 22 years? A good answer would be – all sorts of things. Achieving the tie of semblance between life and what is presented as art; the complementary nature of what is thought and proscribed during a romantic couple’s relationship. Changing the title of the work on this occasion from Kiss into 1997 changes the implications of meaning of the work on several levels.
This artistic work, presented in a new context more than two decades after it was created, ostensibly speaks about the nature of ageing of a particular work of art, as well as of a romantic relationship between partners. The love, projected in 1997, from a temporally fixed starting point into the future, is now directed into the past – transformed from a projection into retrospection, suggested by showing the same work 22 years later. However, it is simultaneously a projection into a new future, a bifurcation of two paths leading from two starting points that slide in time, creating chronotopic breaks, reflected in the determination of a romantic partnership. Encountering a repetitive structure disallows external action and is yet again directed to itself as an event, while the separation equally always starts anew, yet, just like the encounter, it is never-ending. The video installation with two channels that have the same content, consists of two mutually synchronized projections that are, projected on opposite walls, and, therefore, at a distance, that is, separated by the spatial zone – non-images. Though in the beginning the projection is a neutral zone of separation or convergence, it becomes incorporated into the content of the projected phases of animation and acquires a symbolic meaning by constructing toponymical narration, in this installation achieved through the viewer’s belated temporal sequence.
Dan Oki (HR)
Dan Oki is a visual artist and film author. His works focus on processes and explorations of personal, social, visual and literary contents, which require different media formats and ways of presentation. At the center of his interest lies a personal media archive and visual narratives in the context of galleries, new media and film. He belongs to a generation of artists who, during the 90s of the 20th century and the noughts of this one, dedicated themselves to the exploration of properties of visual arts in film and new media. He has exhibited works in the domain of contemporary art in institutions such as Mejan Labs - Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid; Palazzo Pubblico in Siena; The 5th International Biennale ARTEC’97 in Nagoya; Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Arnhem; the Museum of Modern and Contemporary art in Rijeka; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb; Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad; Doulon Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai; Smart Project Space in Amsterdam; Andiamo Gallery in Marseille; ARCO Blackbox in Madrid; Argos in Brussels; Red Brick House in Yokohama. The exploration of the moving image and media theory leads him towards independent live action film. As producer, scriptwriter and director, he worked on five feature films of different genres between 2004 and 2017: Oxygen 4 (2004), The Performance (2010), Darkness (2013) and The Last Super 8 Film (2017). His films have been screened at festivals such as Motovun Film Festival; Brooklyn Film Festival in New York; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Image Forum Film Festival in Tokyo; Pula Film Festival; Transmediale in Berlin; SEE Film Festival in Los Angeles; European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück; World Wide Video Festival in The Hague; Vidonale in Bonn. His works can be found in the collections of distinguished national and foreign media arts institutions. He is a full professor at both the Academy of Fine Arts in Split and Zagreb.
Sandra Sterle (HR)
Sandra Sterle (Zadar, 1965) graduated at the Department of Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and continued her education at the Department of Film and Video of the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. From 1991 to 2000 she lived and worked in Amsterdam, where she received several scholarships and awards for her artistic work. In 2001 she started teaching at the Arts Academy in Split, first a course on new media and then the courses entitled Performance and Video and Art in Context. Her works have been exhibited, performed and screened at numerous national and international artistic institutions. Her works move within both real and virtual geographies in relation to which she creates fluid identity configurations, constantly defining new social, biological and communicational formats. She is interested in physical performances as a medium of performing identity within the framework of a classical definition of a performance or through constructs, using video, film, media technologies or building methodologically complex narratives.
