SMELL YOU > SMELL ME
Ten single channel video installation
Jenny Marketou, 2003SMELLYOU>SMELLME has been launched as an installation during the BLOOD & HONEY: Future's in the Balkans, exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann at Sammlung Essl, Vienna, Austria.
www.sammlung-essl.at
“ In Patrick Suskind novel “Das Parfum” the hero Jean- Baptiste Grenouille has recorded into his inexhaustible memory bank hundreds of thousands of smells in such clear and unmistakable manner that not only he could remember them ,but he could sense them whenever he simply thought about them, he could even create new combinations and images in his imagination”.
SMELLYOU>SMELLME juxtaposes a series of ten broadcasted and videotaped interviews which I conducted as “hostess” around the structure of a public television talk show called SMELLYOU>SMELLME. My invited guests, twenty all together came from different paths of life and cultures and were asked to respond to the same set of questions. The structure of the interviews draws directly from The Big Brother, talk shows and testimonials which have become a popular collective fascination and entertainment worldwide. In all these interviews the essence of “smell” and “body odors” is matrix in which innumerable aspects of life and lived reality come to intersect in order to investigate the relationship between the individual and the collective memory, between identity and geography, between the fragile in the daily occurrences and the fragmented notion of place and time, the blurring between private/public.
As a television talk show was co produced with the Media and Public Television Department at the Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Canada and was broadcasted live in October, 1998.
< PressRelease >
BLOOD & HONEY
FUTURE’S IN THE BALKANS
16 May _ 28 September 2003
Venue Sammlung Essl Kunst der Gegenwart
An der Donau-Au 1, A - 3400 Klosterneuburg/Wien
www.sammlung-essl.at
Curator: Harald Szeemann
Artists: Marina Abramovic, Nevin Aladag, Alptekin Huseyin, Braila Pavel, IRWIN, Maja Bajevic,Anonym, Braco Dimitrijev, Ayse Erkemen, Esra Ersen,Guslun Karamustafa,Cem Aydogan, Lyuben Kostov, Jenny Marketou, Antoni Maznevski, Mark Verlain, Ornela Vorpsi, Agim Zajmi, Alla Georgieva, Marilena Gemisheva, Edi Hila, Teddor Graur, Nedko Solakov, Adrian Paci,Daniela Kostova, Anri Sala, Nasar Tur,Venera Kastrati, Mihaela Kavdanska ,SubREAL,Labin Art Express,Son:DA,Emir Kusturica, Zaneta Vangeli and others.
The Balkans start in Klosterneuburg. From 16 May 28 September 2003, The Essl Collection will present the exhibition BLood & HONEY Future’s in the Balkans. Harald Szeemann, one of the most renowned exhibition curators of our time, has put together this spectacular show, the first presentation of a wide variety of contemporary artworks from the countries of south-east Europe. 73 artists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and Serbia-Montenegro will exhibit their work on an area of 3,500 sq.m.. During the last three years, Harald Szeemann made several journeys to the Balkan states to select the works to be exhibited, and art collector Karlheinz Essl sometimes accompanied him. A historic exhibit serves as a prelude to the exhibition: the Habsburg hearse which conveyed Crown Prince Ferdinand to his tomb after his assassination in Sarajevo.
When he was in charge of the Venice Biennale, Harald Szeemann was already aware of the great significance the countries of south-east Europe attributed to being represented as nations. By their presence, they wanted to demonstrate that they were part of Europe. This gave rise to the idea of the exhibition at The Essl Collection. Together with “mountain range”, HONEY & BLOOD is a possible translation for the term BAL-KAN, a fact which was a further motivation for Szeemann to tackle the project. “Blood is the most precious stuff, not only for Rudolf Steiner and Joseph Beuys, but also for the Vienna Actionists, who love the red liquid. BLOOD & HONEY is more than a group exhibition of a certain part of Europe. The title evokes the poles of anger and tenderness, disaster and idyll, of something deeply human and universal." (Harald Szeemann) "Future’s in the Balkans" points not only to a south-east Europe which has not yet accomplished multi-ethnic unity, but also to all the links between these multilingual ethnicities and religions, majorities and minorities ? in the form of art. It is not a matter of displaying exotica, but of awakening western sensitivity to the existence of this cultural landscape.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive program of musical performances and art education events to provide visitors with an¤Ñall-embracing impression of this region which holds so much fascination for those interested in art.
Catalogue German / English with contributions by Erhard Busek, Ivaylo Ditchev, Edi Muka, Melentie Pandilovski, Gëzim Qëndro, Stefan Rusu, Cyrill Stieger, Harald Szeemann, and Karlheinz Essl. 288 pages with numerous artwork images and illustrations, € 34,90.
Please mail orders to: bookshop@sammlung-essl.at
