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Igor Toshevski with his new project Territories in
Tocka
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On 02.06.2004. in the
Cultural Center Tocka the exhibition of photographies will
be opened. It is the last project of his newest project
Territories. The project took place in Skopje on 29.03.2004.
and ended on 30.05.04. in Stip, Tetovo, Prilep, Gostivar). |
THE CONCEPT BEHIND
FREE TERRITORIES
The Free Territories
are conceived as traps for free spontaneous performative expression.
They are in fact templums or traps in which borders any act,
gesture, action/no-action or even shadow becomes a pure conceptual
artistic action, echoing in space as a haiku whisper. It is based on
an arrangement between the passerby and myself.
The locations I saw suitable for creating the Free Territories
are parts of the public spaces that maintain an undefined status, a
kind of “no-man’s land” or neutral zones within the city scape. They
are created consecutively. Outlined in yellow paint, their numbers
grow by the day. Some are renewed, some fade out quietly under the
footsteps of the crowd or the rain. None of them are made to last.
They are all around us in the urban landscape existing also as an
attempt to fill in the gap in the harmony of the specified site or
to create a new one.
Every single object or action caught within the borders of the
Territory become art-objects, ready-mades or social sculptures.
Respectfully, every passerby is a potential performance artist, a
poet of gesture or a creative activist. To reside in the Free
Territory means to act creatively; no academic background or
special technology is needed.
Free Territories are pockets of creative freedom where the
choice of the individual sways over the dominant vulgarity of
politics. They represent junctions along the road to the essential
state of Art. They are enclaves of social expression. Therefore, in
the Free Territory there are no limitations or restrictions
of any kind.
The Free Territory is a possibility for each individual to
act as an artist. The Territory is beyond the stale
institutions of the Art Museums, beyond the blasé criteria of the
State Galleries and the political frenzy.
The wind plays with the leaf. The leaf flies over the zone. The leaf
becomes a spectacular artistic object – if only for a split second.
Stepping over the Territory becomes a poetic act of the
subtlest nature. Within the yellow line, each uttered word, whisper
or even thought becomes an autonomous conceptual action equal to
Ives Klein’s leap into empty void.
Find the Free Territory!
from Nikola Gelevski review |
