Моля, дойдете за вечера на 19:30. (Please, come for dinner at 19:30.)
This piece is a fake surveillance tape, born from our interest in the presumed existence of authenticity under watch, made during a residency with the Tsarino Foundation in the abandoned village of Tsarino, Bulgaria in May 2018.
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The video is made up of six different shots that look like security footage (modelled on London’s bus surveillance), installed on a TV in Ukzel Cafe in Chorbadzhiysko, Bulgaria. The TV usually plays local television (w/ a lovely glare to it) at this semi-outdoor cafe/supermarket/meeting place/wi-fi destination. Chorabdinskyo is a village neighboring Tsarino that is inhabited by people who are very curious about why a hoard of foreign artists show up every once in a while to a village with snakes and no electricity, often times inventing their own myths about what the “artists” do up there. Alongside the video are Photoshopped pictures of security cameras in Tsarino and a text. Here is an excerpt from the text displayed with the piece offering a description and motivation:
“While this footage is not meant to be viewed in its entirety except in cases of exceptional interest, we included running narratives that make references to local mythologies, like the one about scattering rice outside of your door so that a potential demon will get too lost counting the morsels to come inside, and social histories. Surveillance watching as a means of cultural exchange and learning is also interesting to us, and we hope to provide some of that to you even as you watch a farce.
(closer view of the video playing at the cafe)
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When we first arrived to Tsarino we learned that one reason for the village’s abandonment was that the Communists planted pine trees instead of oak, hoping to reap greater profits in a shorter time frame, but the pine sucked too much water from the ground, leaving the region dry and less inhabitable. In the film we spend time cooking a soup of pine needles, alluding to this story. We invite the cows to dinner via a sign written in (poorly Google translated) Bulgarian, seemingly the only neutral language between our English and the cow’s moo. The cows don’t show up for the meal and knock over one of our cameras in the manner of a robber painting over a security camera to remain hidden. Oh well.”
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We wanted to create our false surveillance tape to mimic the actual surveillance state and its attempt to use the visual/vertical perspective to maintain sovereignty (yes, this interest spawned after reading that Steyerl article). We are interested in perceived/concocted authenticity under watch and the efficacy of surveillance (and the misleadingness/corruptibility of the visual, which is also why the video is silent, like most visual security footage/bias of technology).
More documentation can be found here. The full text displayed as part of the installation can be found here.
This piece is a fake surveillance tape, born from our interest in the presumed existence of authenticity under watch, made during a residency with the Tsarino Foundation in the abandoned village of Tsarino, Bulgaria in May 2018.
The video is made up of six different shots that look like security footage (modelled on London’s bus surveillance), installed on a TV in Ukzel Cafe in Chorbadzhiysko, Bulgaria. The TV usually plays local television (w/ a lovely glare to it) at this semi-outdoor cafe/supermarket/meeting place/wi-fi destination. Chorabdinskyo is a village neighboring Tsarino that is inhabited by people who are very curious about why a hoard of foreign artists show up every once in a while to a village with snakes and no electricity, often times inventing their own myths about what the “artists” do up there. Alongside the video are Photoshopped pictures of security cameras in Tsarino and a text. Here is an excerpt from the text displayed with the piece offering a description and motivation:
“While this footage is not meant to be viewed in its entirety except in cases of exceptional interest, we included running narratives that make references to local mythologies, like the one about scattering rice outside of your door so that a potential demon will get too lost counting the morsels to come inside, and social histories. Surveillance watching as a means of cultural exchange and learning is also interesting to us, and we hope to provide some of that to you even as you watch a farce.
(closer view of the video playing at the cafe)
When we first arrived to Tsarino we learned that one reason for the village’s abandonment was that the Communists planted pine trees instead of oak, hoping to reap greater profits in a shorter time frame, but the pine sucked too much water from the ground, leaving the region dry and less inhabitable. In the film we spend time cooking a soup of pine needles, alluding to this story. We invite the cows to dinner via a sign written in (poorly Google translated) Bulgarian, seemingly the only neutral language between our English and the cow’s moo. The cows don’t show up for the meal and knock over one of our cameras in the manner of a robber painting over a security camera to remain hidden. Oh well.”
We wanted to create our false surveillance tape to mimic the actual surveillance state and its attempt to use the visual/vertical perspective to maintain sovereignty (yes, this interest spawned after reading that Steyerl article). We are interested in perceived/concocted authenticity under watch and the efficacy of surveillance (and the misleadingness/corruptibility of the visual, which is also why the video is silent, like most visual security footage/bias of technology).
More documentation can be found here. The full text displayed as part of the installation can be found here.