From Art Colony Galichnik with Love (Macedonia 2010) - Myriam Thyes

Installation: 2 synchronized HD media players, 2 upright format HD screens (or HD projections), two pairs of stereo loudspeakers.

Languages: Serbocroatian / Bosnian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian; English subtitles.

In summer 2010, M. Thyes participated in the ‘Art Colony Galichnik’ in Macedonia, together with artists and curators from various Balkan countries. Thyes asked the participants to give a statement to her camcorder in their mother tongue. In the video-diptych, excerpts of these ‘interviews’ are combined with other scenes Thyes filmed in Macedonia. Having visited the Balkans for the first time, Thyes didn’t interfere a lot with her impressions (analytically and artistically), but decided to create a homage to the people she had met in Macedonia, from whom she had learnt a lot in intensive conversations.
The collage of images and voices gives an impression of cultural and individual diversities and various human dreams, desires, and ambitions – all together existing on a small spot on earth, and perhaps being similar for humans all over the world.

The following people gave their answers:

Ana Frangovska, curator at the National Gallery in Skopje, and director of the Art Colony Galichnik.
Nove Frangovski, artist, Skopje, Macedonia, founder and former director of the Art Colony Galichnik.
Nadja Frangovska, business economist, from Belgrade, living in Skopje, Macedonia.
Suzana Minovska, public relations at the National Gallery in Skopje, Macedonia.
Igor Sekovski, artist, assistant professor at the European University of Macedonia, Skopje.
Fahredin Spahija, artist, director at the National Gallery of Kosovo (Kosova Art Gallery), Pristina.
Gordana Kaljalovic, artist, Belgrade, Serbia.
Nena Sesic-Fišer, artist, from Croatia/Bosnia, living in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Nenad Fišer, philosopher, from Sarajevo, Bosnia, living in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Georgi Krastev, artist, from Varna, living in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Osman Demiri, artist, Gostivar, Macedonia.