The rights, I am Bosnian, part of the installation The Rights, as represented in Open Space, Vienna, 2008.
2007 – ongoing
Video Installation
Sizes variable, 7 videos, black and white, duration varies between 7 to 10 min, loop. The videos are sometimes represented as a single screen video.
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The rights, is a series that includes the following videos:
Rights, i am Macedonian; Rights, i am Romanian; Rights, I am Bosnian; Rights, I am Serbian rights; Rights, i am Turkish.
The Rights is an ongoing series of video recordings of different boys and girls, originating from countries of New Europe. For example – the episode Rights, I am Macedonian, portrays a 9 year old boy of Macedonian origin, reading a description of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics.
Similar to this all other children are reading the same text. The complexity of the vocabulary and sentence structure and the boy’s inability to comprehend the concepts contained in the text itself. The attempt to comprehend the text, symbolically speaking reflect the difficulty / near impossibility for immigrants to become integrated into the ‘maze-like’ legal systems of their adoptive western societies.
Insert from the single screen video The rights, I am Bosnian, 2008.
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Selected exhibition history:
/ Temporary Zones exhibition in Open Space, Vienna 2008
/ Homecoming exhibition in INIVA, London 2007
Book: Mapping contemporary creative practice, 2008, ENG/GER, containing essays and images about the yearlly program of Open Space.
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Press realises:
/ Springerin, monthly art & culture magazine, Issue 2/08, Vienna, Title: “Ein Rundgang durch die Wiener »Off-Space«-Szene” [PDF], by Christa Benzer, GR
/ ARTMargins, University of California publication specialised on East-Central European art, May 2008, Title: Gülsen Bal and “Open Space” at the Zentrum für Kunstprojekte, Vienna [online], by Walter Seidl, ENG
/ Culture of Republic of Macedonia, cultural internet portal, 2008, Title: Screening of Short Film by Nada Prlja [on;ine], ENG
