MARC BEHRENSNEWSBIOMUSICARTWORKSTEXTBANDCAMPYOUTUBECONTACT
1998
Projekt za Znojile telefonske kartice [Project for Znojile Telephone Cards] and Komunikazijski instrument za ohranjanje stika z izginulimi [Communication Instrument for Keeping Contact with the Vanished]
installation
(Transverzala Utrinkov, Strzišce, Znojile and Kal, Slovenia)

This installation took place in Znojile, a mountain village in Slovenia with at the time 8 inhabitants.
In a rough space normally used to store farming equipment, models for Znojile spiritual telephone cards were installed on one wall. A dismantled pocket radio receiver, a bone and a small root which was reminiscent of a mandrake were arranged on the floor and encrusted with a thick layer of coarse salt (this absorbed all the electromagnetic energy, thus the radio remained silent though switched on at maximum volume). The high doorstep of the room was equally encrusted.
As reported by one villager, some little deer from the forest had licked off a bit of the salt crust from the doorstep during the time of the exhibition.

Whereas the “communication instrument”, is vaguely connected to a ritual which could have taken place in the room, the phone card models rather anticipate a possible event set in the future.

To view the cards’ backsides, where they revealed macro photographs of the villager’s scars, spectators had to stick their heads between thin, fragile wooden sticks. On the front side the cards showed views of the village focusing on overground power and telephone cables, a potential communication network which—in its material presence—seemed overemphasized.

Thanks to Gioia Danielis and some of the villagers for collaborating.


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