Bojan Štokelj
I. Regenta 3
5000 NOVA GORICA
SLOVENIJA
SINE ANNO I. II
SINE ANNO ET LOCO
or: satellitic transmission of post hominid bulletproof module
BLOCK XI APARTMENT NO. 5
The real everyday nature of
earthly cells hypostasized in
space mean the end of meta-
physics. Now starts the era of
hyper-realism...
(free rendering of a passage from
Jean Baudrillard's "Ecstasy of
Communication")
Who (what?) and how "today", in the aftermath of almost eight hyper-realistic
years since B.O.Š.'s realization of the SINE ANNO (I) ambient in Banja
Luka (1989) in the eve of the YU-death/YU-cell deterioration which had anyway
(become?) "sine anno" a kind of bulletproof necropolis for the potential
dead, missing, or displaced ("decontaminated") astronauts from the
Ex-Yu-Sarajevo module known as, on a symbolically-non-metaphorical (metonymical)
level, BLOCK XI APARTMENT NO. 5-hence, let's start all over again, who and what
"still" resides (and how) in that only "apartment" with
a door, but without the scorched eyeless doll that B.O.Š. artistically
satellized and equipped with optical sensors (viriles) within the structural
complex of his metallic peep-show neosculpturally and thoroughly bulletproofed
subject-module? W. Reich construed a booth-like box for the living dead. But
Štokelj's simulacrum as an anti-utopian device and "sculptural"
provocative surrogate of the experience of non-dwelling of the non present (missing)
is not that kind of a therapeutic energizer machine. Neither is it a paleoindustrial
chassis of some sort of Ballard-Baudrillard hyperboloid. So, how can this ever
be perceived in light of the New Slovenian Sculpture!?
Bearing this heavy burden of a block for sculptural DEJA VU installation on
his shoulders, Štokelj, during the indicative year of 1989, injured one
of his spinal vertebras (so that his backbone could no longer bend!). This fact
was undeniably a "plug in" into the Slovenian sculptural elite of
the Eighties and Nineties, since his fractal backbone and tormented torso can
now only be compared with the conceptually analogous sculpturing achievements
of a Jakov Brdar.
In his film CITIZEN KANE (1941), Orson Welles says something like: "He
never disclosed anything. He only gave hints."
In Štokelj's surrogated module, the DOLL, the object found in the devastated
Block-Apartment in Sarajevo, magically "equalizes" considerations
between the experience of disclosure and the experience of an aesthetical perception
of reality as an object, but also as an informational nucleus of reality inserted
from "outside" into the system of art. At the selected location of
confrontation. The armored CITIZEN KANE stands face to face with the truth of
his own mysterious "rosebud", that object which this Welles' masterpiece
causes everybody to seek and yearn, the object of their "mental pains",
causing arrhythmic heart beats, headaches, breakdown and fire in Kane's media
armored and blocked empire. Kane on the bier in his castle. For Kane the years
from 1929 to 1941 were the "Sine anno" I., when a mechanical "rose"
really "played" a role in surroundings with a bier and reclined heads,
like in the fall of 1989, but on the inside corresponds to Sine anno II (1997),
"after all".
The NAKED Lunch is a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork. (William S. Burroughs)
Branko Cerovac
22 Nov. 1997
(Translated from Croatian into English by Slobodan Drenovac)
IMRE PRESS:
(excerpt from a lengthier contribution in the above mentioned periodical, dated
July 4, 1997, page 1)
Artist, Bojan Štokelj, known for having already visited our part of the country, comes from Slovenia.
Imre: How did he come upon the idea for Sine anno II?
On occasion of his visit to Sarajevo and realization of the Collegium Artisticum
(Skenderija) Project called PROGRAMMER IN BELGRADE -- NEWS FROM SERBIA, the
artist abandons the sacral gallery space of the enamored and starts his search
for new materials -- photographs, since he had previously planned preparation
of a WEB page -- RTV SARAJEVO -- NEWS CHRONICLE. It is quite apparent that he
was thereafter attracted to the demolished and devastated flats, since necrophilia
is a homelike feeling in the environment from where the artist comes. Everybody
told him that the best scene is in Dobrinje. After this town quarter of Sarajevo
was liberated by the Serbs, only cocoons and completely destroyed blocks of
apartment buildings remained. The blocks stood in squares.
He paid a visit to Block 10, Apartment no. 5. He chose that apartment because
it was the only one with a door. The writing on the door said RING, KNOCKING
IS OUT OF ORDER. Behind the door -- nothing, just empty cocoons and a green
surface several floors down below. During the Canon's flash he caught sight
of a doll's head, nicely scorched by fire and slaughtered pat through her eye.
An invitation from the Serbian Ministry of Culture to participate in the sculpture
symposium on urban sculpture was already waiting for him at home, to take place
in an idyllic zone in the town of Apatin in northwestern Serbia, close to Vukovar.
The organizer, the well known Meandar Gallery, organized the work in the shipyard.
Due to the international blockade, some 300 workers were jobless, so that we
were given a great welcome. The other participants were Kosta Bogdanoviæ,
Jasminka Brkanoviæ, Zoran Todoroviæ.
Imre: "You made two creations?"
Yes, each artist made one urban sculpture and one gallery object. For instance,
I made an urban object called SINE ANNO II and a gallery piece called DIGITAL
MACHINE.
The SINE ANNO I, which you could have seen at the Engagé Art Exhibition
on the Territory of Yugoslavia in 1989 in Banja Luka does not differ all that
much, as they say, from SINE ANNO II.
It is an iron structure whose dimensions are 250 x 160 x 80 centimeters. It
has two viriles. The top one is penetrated by a ray of sunlight which illuminates
the head of the doll from Dobrinje. Through the frontal opening you can nicely
see, if you bend down, the interior. The front panel bears the inscription BLOCK
XI, APARTMENT NUMBER 5. The structure is now located in the urban center itself,
the center of town, on the green lawn in front of the entry to Apatin's police
station.
Imre: "And the Digital Machine?"
It was found in the shipyard's scrap heap. Its shape alone confirms its content.
The draftsmen who draw plans of ships' hulls in gauges 1:1 are located in the
upper premises of the shipyard. You can enter their premises only in soft slippers.
They are considered artists. The drawings of acts on the walls support this
view.
The Apatin Gallery bought two pictures and 3 pairs of slippers for installation
of the Digital Machine.
The installation was comprised of winking little lamps on the upper panel of
the machine which emitted the sound of a Hawaii guitar, smoke, and red light.
The already mentioned slippers were set up in front of the structure, and the
walls were covered with pictures of sexy models.
Imre: "Did they understand what it was all about?"
The very fact that a queue with a large number of Gypsies standing in front
of the machine waiting to enter (which was not particularly suitable, since
neither the president of the county, the director of the shipyard, the chief
of police, nor the curator herself could get their turn) speaks for itself about
the success of the installation.
(Translated from Croatian into English by Slobodan Drenovac)