Project update June 15

Conceived as a series of abstract prints for billboards installed as megalights on the busiest streets in Skopje, this project aims to reclaim commercially usurped public space for artistic purposes. The Abstract Politics series of digital prints for billboards draws upon a wide array of artistic strategies traditionally used by abstraction (the liberating power of randomness, chaos, gestures), while at the same time recontextualizing them and translating them into the language of new media.

In the period February-April 2008 I installed two megalights (3x4 m in size each) on the streets of Skopje. The locations ensured optimum visibility of the project:

- one right in front of the main Government building,

- and the other on one of the busiest intersections in the center of Skopje:

Each megalight includes the title of the work, the size, year and medium, i.e. Zoran Poposki, “Abstract Politics 1 (Political consensus holds key to European integration)”, digital print, 3x4 m, 2008. Also provided is the address of the website with documentation of the project: www.public-space.info to direct the viewers to learn more about the concept and process.

The works were installed for a period of 1.5 months, from February 20^th to April 1^st 2008. During that period, the website with the documentation of the project attracted a total of 467 visits.

I also had an exhibition at the Tocka Cultural Center in Skopje, where I exhibited documentation of the process and 10 digital prints on forex of the works in the series. Attached are a few photographs:

The process

This series of digital prints for billboards draws upon a wide array of artistic strategies traditionally used by abstraction (the liberating power of randomness, chaos, gestures), while at the same time recontextualizing them and translating them into the language of new media.

The process of their development can be illustrated through the first work in the series, entitled “European integration (Political consensus holds key to European integration)”:

The starting point in the process is the media, i.e. news coverage of national and global political issues. In this case, the process starts with a news story about the political dialogue in Macedonia, under the headline Political consensus holds key to European integration. In the contemporary, digital version of the aleatory principle, the headline is searched in Google Images, and the search results thus obtained serve as raw material which is later digitally edited (see screenshot).

In this particular case, I used 21 randomly chosen images (pictures, maps, graphs) presented below, out of a total of nearly 400, which were later processed in Photoshop to get the final result (digital print, 156x100 cm).

Work #2 in the series started with the news story entitled At least 14 killed in separate attacks in Iraq, of 17 December 2007. The search of the title through Google Images returned some 2,500 results, including photographs of George Bush, 9/11, soldiers, weapons, maps, Slavoj Žižek, etc.

I used some 40 images, randomly selected from the search output, and digitally edited them to create the second digital print in the series:
The final product, entitled “14 killed in Iraq (in full: At least 14 killed in separate attacks in Iraq)”:

Work #3 commenced with an article about the possibility of a new war in the Balkans ignited by Kosovo’s independence, entitled Antidote to Nationalism, published in The Guardian on 3 Dec 2007. The Google Images search of the title returned over 90 images, including the Statue of Liberty, George Bush, weapons, protesters, Bosnia, the Israel Security Fence, books, maps, Slavoj Žižek once again, etc.

I used a total of 56 images (above) to produce the following digital print, entitled “Antidote to Nationalism”:

Work #4 started with a BBC News story about the recent security problems in Macedonia, entitled Macedonia clash leaves two dead (BBC News, 10 Sep 2007). The Google Images search of the headline returned some 50 images (see screenshot), including maps (surprisingly mostly of Iraq), soldiers, ABBA, Aristotle, Abraham Lincoln, fighter jets, parrots, and soccer.

The final result is the following digital print, entitled “Macedonia clash (leaves 2 dead)”:

Work #5, entitled “The name issue (Greece and Macedonia to restart talks on name)” had its beginnings in a New York Times article of 6 Dec 2007 about the ongoing dispute between Greece and Macedonia regarding how the latter country should call itself, under the headline Greece and Macedonia to Restart Talks on Name. The Google Images search of the headline returned 177 results (see screenshot):

Results included the usual maps, war planes, tanks and other weapons, US soldiers (showed up in all five searches), as well as more interesting items such as food, Elvis impersonators, wildfires, soccer, etc.

I used a total of 86 images (above) to create the following digital print:

Artist statement

Public space is commonly defined as a place or space created and maintained by public authority, accessible to all citizens for their use and enjoyment. As areas shared by all citizens, public spaces are the primary source of local identity. Furthermore, “public space” is the space where individuals see and are seen by others as they engage in public affairs and is thus a precondition for “public freedom” (Hannah Arendt).

However, public spaces are increasingly being threatened by commercial intrusion and usurpation of the public interest. Examples include commercial events that restrict access to parks and squares, the design of retail kiosks and storefronts in and around public spaces that does not respect the local context (sending a signal that it no longer represents the local community), as well as the proliferation of outdoor advertising that destroys the character of natural and historic urban landscapes. When commercial interests gain too much influence over public space, the ultimate result is a destruction of the sense of shared ownership of that space and an erosion of civic identity.

Continuing the line of experimentation and expansion of my artistic practice that was sparked by my last project, in this project I explore the issue of privatization of public space, or to be more precise the overpowering omnipresence of advertising (logos, ads, banners, billboards) in public places. This issue is of major importance and urgency in my country, especially in my home city, Skopje, in the context of its post-socialist transition into neo-liberal capitalism, where the public sphere is increasingly being usurped by private capital.

Conceived as a series of abstract prints for billboards installed as megalights on the busiest streets in Skopje, this project aims to reclaim commercially usurped public space for artistic purposes. The Abstract Politics series of digital prints for billboards draws upon a wide array of artistic strategies traditionally used by abstraction (the liberating power of randomness, chaos, gestures), while at the same time recontextualizing them and translating them into the language of new media.

This project is in line with my previous exploration of the ways to reclaim advertising techniques for artistic purposes. In this time of ubiquitous commodification, the very medium and format of my works is meant to serve as a political intervention, by trying to undermine the overbearing current of advertising information we’re exposed to as consumers in our everyday life.

Project Development

The work on this project has been inspired by two TI workshops which I attended last summer, namely Klaus Knoll’s Language and Image and Marjorie Vecchio’s The Boundaries of Abstraction. They were very important in that they informed my thinking about new discursive strategies to incorporate in my artistic practice and ways to introduce political content into the seemingly apolitical vocabulary of abstract art. Another point of departure was the work of Oliver Ressler, an artist whose politically charged use of billboards as an artistic medium I came across during the work on my research project this semester.

My work on this art project started with securing the necessary licences and institutional support/funding for the project, extensive research into the situation with billboards in Skopje in an attempt to determine their number, regulations governing their placement and possible complaints/problems, as well as detailed mapping out of billboards in the center of the city.

Since my letter to the City administration inquiring about the laws/bylaws that regulate the placement of billboards in Skopje remains unanswered to this day, I had to turn to the media for information. The extensive search of billboard-related news stories published in major Macedonian dailies provided the following information:

• Billboard licences are awarded through a tender process. The last one apparently took place in 2003, with five-year licences awarded to two companies, Eurolinija and Akcent Media, for a total of 400 billboards.
• However, that number has obviously been surpassed. The City authorities estimate that at present in Skopje there are over 600 billboards.
• Most billboards are located on the main streets, primarily in the centre of the city.
• The proliferation of billboards can be attributed to - among other things - the low fee advertisers pay for their placement. The communal fee for putting a billboard is less than $40 a year - the price of a one-day black-and-white ad in a daily newspaper in Macedonia! On the other hand, the price of renting a billboard ranges from 250 to 1,000 EUR per month.
• Despite the low fee, many billboards have been put illegally. There are even claims in the media that as many as half of all billboards in the City have no license.
• The maximum allowed size of billboards is 12 square meters, but according to reports they are often bigger than 15 square meters. Bigger billboards require a construction permit from the Municipality, but most of them lack such a permit.
• Jumbo billboards on buildings should be placed at least 3.5 meters above the ground and 8 meters away from any crossroad. This regulation, however, is rarely followed (as this photo clearly demonstrates).
• The fact that the billboards in Skopje are far larger and much greater in number than the regulations allow creates a host of problems for citizens, ranging from decreased visibility on the main roads and intersection to physical injuries (and even death) to unsuspecting passers-by.

Evidently, the problem with billboards in Skopje is so serious that the City authorities are considering banning huge billboards around the city square and reducing their number in the streets near in the center of the city, removing most of them to the periphery. However, there is no precise deadline as to when will that happen. I hope that this project will speed up that decision.

My next step was to personally identify the scope of the problem. I decided to focus on a city block in the centre of Skopje, as an indicator of the overall situation. I took photographs of all billboards within that particular block, noting down their (estimated) size and location. Attached are a few photographs:

The full set of some 50 photographs can be seen here.

I think it’s safe to say that the administration’s estimates are far too conservative when compared to the actual number. My identification showed a total of 81 billboards in just one city block. If this is any indication of the overall situation, then Skopje is definitely congested with outdoor advertising, to a point of semiotic saturation.

The following is a map of all billboards (jumbo, regular and empty ones) in this city block that I have noted down, superimposed over a satellite image of this particular part of Skopje:

Satellite image courtesy Google Maps

Project Output

The final project output consists of the following:

a) 2 megalights (billboard/digital print on PVC, 120x160 in), installed on the busiest streets in the center of Skopje in the period Feb-April 2008;

b) 5 digital prints mounted on forex:

- Political Consensus Holds Key to European Integration, 2008, digital print mounted on forex, 35x47 in

- At Least 14 Killed in Separate Attacks in Iraq, 2008, digital print mounted on forex, 35x58 in

- Antidote to Nationalism, 2008, digital print mounted on forex, 35x48 in

- Macedonia Clash Leaves Two Dead, digital print mounted on forex, 35x53 in

- Greece and Macedonia to Restart Talks on Name, digital print mounted on forex, 35x56 in

c) 5 documentation contact sheets, digital prints, 20x28 in each

d) 50 digital photographs of billboards in the center of Skopje as documentation/preparatory work

e) project website (www.public-space.info) documenting the project, with a total of 467 visits in the period while the works were installed as billboards.