STEAM MACHINE, 2011

Description

STEAM MACHINE

Social and political turmoil over the last hundred years is represented by slogans floating on clouds of steam. Walter Benjamin said: “The real image of the past moves on fleetingly.” Slogans are projected on moving steam, underlining yet again the ephemeral within the project and the way it tends to speak about history. Everything comes and goes and turns around. In the former Yugoslavia there was an expression often used to describe politicians: ‘the ones who sell fog’ or ‘fog sellers,’ meaning those who tell a free interpretation of the facts, not necessarily false but not true either. (Maja Bajevic).

The installation “To Be Contined” is made up of a machine with the visual appearance of an old-fashioned steam engine. The machine continually emits steam on which political and ecomonic slogans are projected. The slogans become visible only for a short time on the visionary ‘steam curtain’ before dissolving again. Maja Bajevic did extensive research for this work, looking for principles that shaped the last century and remain unquestioned even today. The work points to the last utopias of the last century and the uncertainty their failures have made room for. The slogans are from the last past 100 years, 1911 to 2011. Here are some examples: Big Brother is Watching you! – Our Day Will Come – Freedom Justice and Law – Business as Usual – Join the Army and See the World – Workers of the World Unite! – Art is Dead – Monarchy, Fatherland and Religion – To Each what He Deserves – Better Dead than Red – V for Vitory – Victory Will Be Ours – Death for Death – Fictory is Your Duty – Death to the Murderer – We Have Clean Hands – We Are Not Afraid – People and Party are One – We Will Die but We Will Be Free To the installation, Maja Bajevic conceived an archive, which contains 148 texts, explaining the slogans. The texts were written especially for the installation “To Be continued”. The authors are Bojana Pejic, Henriette Sölter, Mara Traumane and Maja Bajevic.