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| THE TAYSIR ALLUNI PROJECT |
| an interdisciplinary and interactive art project by
Swiss/French artist NIKUNJA , to create sensibility for the functioning
and interrelation between Television/media/presswork and politics and
the responsibility of the individual for one's own perception of information
at the example of the case of the imprisoned journalist Taysir ALLUNI. The case of Spanish/Syrian citizen Taysir Alluni, a journalist of Arab television channel Al Jazeera and now imprisoned in Madrid, Spain with charges of having links to Al Qaida, is in the centre of that work. It is an example for a new culture of violation of established and accepted civil and human rights, in a "democratic state of right", as Spain and the United States are. It is a culture which favors these conscious violations on the motif for growth of global political and economical influence, control and power. Thus a new economic aristocracy is being established which has its backgrounds on bending and abusing the laws and rights, established on a democratic basis, for any favors, by a sophisticated system of information politics which would create an acceptance of these violations in a majority of the population. So the perception and authority of the individual has to be inspired and strengthened. |
| ART INSTALLATION |
| The installation consists of a replica of a press conference
stand : The centre of the 8 meter wide set is dominated by a desk with microphones,behind the commentator and on the front of the desk representations of logos.Dark blue curtains, clean and neat, covering the back of the stand. Blue carpet on the floor, determining the installation space. Flowers left and right of the desk. Neat looking hostesses walking around with professional smile, distributing press releases; inviting speakers to the desk; being professionally, performing service. Spotlight lightning up face and hand of the speaker. In front of the desk, a television camera facing the speaker/commentator and 3 black television screens facing the audience, showing in realtime the image of the speaker's place from front and the installation. There will be the realtime transmission of this image by a streaming video installation on the web page dedicated to the project and accessible by anyone around the world. On the left side runs a projection of a documentary film created by Canadian filmmaker Demetri Estdelacropolis. The right side of the set is the projection of the same size as the left side projection, so 2 by 3 meters, showing the speaker's situation captured by a camera from above the speaker's place. The image from above refers to the ancient chinese painting tradition, where the look from above through the clouds onto landscape and villages would suggest the "divine look", a kind of "last judgment", reminding men of his ideals and dreams. At the same time, the speaker's place being unused is an empty photographic impression, motionless, lifeless. The lights create a strong theatre like atmosphere recalling the modern icons of the TV news images and settings.. THE DOCUMENTARY FILM The editing takes images of Alluni and his family and focuses on his individual circumstance and includes statements by his children and wife. Incorporated are images Alluni has shot himself executing his work, and images taken from news coverage. For the installation a version as a loop is being created.The film-project as such is also a documentary film production which follows an organic story board, determined by the development of the making of the film. This film is directed by Demetri Estdelacropolis in his dadaist unique style, which earned him international acknowledge. THE PERFORMANCE The placeThe right side of the set is the projection of the same size as the left side projection, so 2 by 3 meters, showing the speaker's situation captured by a camera from above the speaker's place. The image from above refers to the ancient chinese painting tradition, where the look from above through the clouds onto landscape and villages would suggest the "divine look", a kind of "last judgment", reminding men of his ideals and dreams. At the same time, the speaker's place being unused is an empty photographic impression, motionless, lifeless. The lights create a strong theatre like atmosphere recalling the modern icons of the TV news images and settings.. |
| THE DOCUMENTARY FILM |
| The editing takes images of Alluni and his family and focuses on his individual circumstance and includes statements by his children and wife. Incorporated are images Alluni has shot himself executing his work, and images taken from news coverage. For the installation a version as a loop is being created. The film-project as such is also a documentary film production which follows an organic story board, determined by the development of the making of the film. This film is directed by Demetri Estdelacropolis in his dadaist unique style, which earned him international acknowledge. |
| THE PERFORMANCE |
| The place for the speaker is offered to the public,
the audience. Who ever likes , invited by the hostesses, can take the
place of the speaker, proclaim a personal message he feels is relevant
and important. These messages and images are video recorded and linked
to the live video streaming publication on internet in realtime. The speaker has the choice to also or only read out the message by Taysir Alluni which he offers as statement from his prison cell in Spain. Length and content are determined by him. During the short speech by the volunteer speaker, Nikunja paints on the speaker’s hand, imprint the painting on a money bill of any currency of a variety of countries and stick it into the projected video images. By the performance and individual participation and initiative, the art work is constantly evolving and permanently changing. The evolutionary quality and the creative merge of authorities are in this project principle. After the painting is accomplished, I stick the money bill into the video projections and then would wash off the paint of the hands of the parti-cipant. Each process of painting is being documented by video by one of the hoste-ses.The participant is invited to leave his comment in a guest book. |
| BACKGROUND |
| The destiny of Taysir Alluni makes obvious, at once,
how the media is taken hostage by governmental administrations, how the
individual citizen, the potential elector in the democracy, is taken
hostage by corporate dependent influence and interest. Taysir's case reflects a new neo "liberal" occidental culture, which does not halt, to go across basic civil and human rights, violates laws, abusing and deforming the democratic system and its principles, lead by the desire to establish a power control to execute an economical dictatorship which serves the corporate interests, so a few investors and shareholders. The sophistication of means has become so defined, the international corporate network so dense, that the individual citizen, only by interrogating himself and questioning his own perception of the information he gets, beyond the presented "truths" by general (and controlled) media and the promotion of "general opinions" can really determine his independent authority needed to be a deciding citizen. The presented project will not take position to opinions or judge aspects of the manipulation. It focuses on how the global power game, which is nevertheless based on first individual and then corporate desire for material profit, breaks into the intimacy of the existential reality of the individual, one's family, one's culture of life and believe. All people in war zones and dictatorships are facing that. In Taysir Alluni's case the work as a reporter independent from the American army's propaganda/press office feeding the global media market, collides with the wish to control thatmedia, which in war strategies, as well as in general politics is a most important weapon, what collides again with his own life, need for intimacy and safety. As for the case of Alluni, individuals take the right for the sake of so cal-led "higher causes" to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of victims around the world. They are feeling not being responsible, for responsibility would lie within an insti-tution or corporation to which their individual responsibility had been delegated. The right of the individual would be neglected, if institutional causes are at stake. It is not how the action is being explained, that defines the quality of an action. It is the exi-stential reality of the action in itself, which defines the quality of that action. By this art pro-ject the individual visitor is given the authority to act, interact, determine and influence the art work at an extend of his own choice. It is a principle for what can be done inside of any social, political or spiritual institutional system. |
| INTENTIONS |
| Besides the idealistic reasons of the project, I want
to support a just proceeding in the case of Taysir Alluni, create a sensibility
for his exemplary case, strengthen the necessity to keep up the realization
of the Human and Civil Rights. As democracy once appeared from a specific cultural situation in Greek age, I am convinced that the present day situation is linked to a specific cultural condition. Therefore by inspiring and creating new cultural attributes, we expand and strengthen the consciousness, rights and responsibilities of the individual which might enable a betterment of the global social condition. We receive the support by the Arab Human Rights Commission, The International Committee for the Defense of Taysir Alluni and Haytham Manna and Halidou Ouedraogo, movement of Burkina Faso for the Human Rights and Raoul Ouedraogo, representative of the interafrican commission of Human Rights , Geneva. |
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