In the National Gallery of Macedonia in Skopje, a Turbo Star singing competition was organised on 13th of February 2007. The competition itself (including the singing event and subsequent judging event) was a live art event.
The competition was judged by a jury of academics and people from the local art world. This live event was an attempt to provoke the academics＊ reaction to the cultural phenomenon called turbo-folk, a type of music that has dominated the popular culture in South Eastern Europe in recent years.
The superficiality of the melodic compositions and the message that this type of music dictates, has had an overwhelmingly negative influence on the overall level of culture in the region.
The competition jury was chaired by Nebojsa Vilic (art historian and curator, ex director of Soros Center, Skopje, and author of several books on contemporary Macedonian art); Robert Alagosovski (author of three books on literary theory; involved in cultural policy making); Ana Frangovska (art historian and a curator within the National Gallery of Macedonia). The winner of the competition prize Turbo Star was, Goran Simovski (amateur singer).
Turbo Star Wallpaper was painted specifically for this occassion, as the backdrop for the competition organised at the National Gallery of Macedonia in Skopje; it was inspired by a scenography used for a particular Turbo folk event in the Balkans.
These works, part of the exhibiton Globalwood, took ＆… a critical and provocative position in relation to the socio-cultural phenomena….The intentionally emphasized visual and discursive contrasts – themes on which the articulation of the entire project was based (such as local/global, low culture/high culture)…＊
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