Hesitation-Illusion, 2014
Interactive Multimedia Installation
Bowling alley with 9 wooden tenpins and bowl, webcamera, video projector, mac
Dimension variable
Installation view, CHB, Berlin, 2014
As a starting point to work on this installation I tried to analyse the state of mind of Gavarilo Princip, the political militant who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. What was passing through his mind before he pulled the trigger?
We can regard him as a terrorist who brutally killed the royal couple, but also as a national hero who lived and died for his ideas to liberate and unite the Southern Slavs. While studing the period 1914 - 2014 I learned that the rebel minds in changing the ruling system, monarchy, regime or dictator and tried to change the World by himself using his own methods. Someone who believed in freedom and democracy, but also who was ready to sacrifice his own life for his ideas. This aggression might have changed History, however, in most cases it did not reach the goal, that is, to achieve real freedom, it mostly stayed just a big illusion until the next dictator arrived. I collected 214 portraits of leading persons regarded as dictators worldwide (in Africa, The Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe) from 1914 till today. I decided to project them on wooden tenpins and to offer the possibility to the visitors to try to feel similar to Gavarilo Princip and to bring the figures down.
Once knocked the pins, just like in real life, the image of the next dictator is immediately projected: the idea of changing the world by one self remains just a big illusion.
