The Diary of Balkman
Fingerpaintings on Screen by Vladan Jeremić. Curated by Ivor A Stodolsky
Curatorial Statement
After decades of the deafening horror of turbo-folk-charged regressive nationalist narratives, Balkman balked. Building the bastion of the Unbribables, he balked at the bribability of Balkanic institutions. The pretty purgatory of petty art institutions in particular.
It took ten years of dubious delays, corrupted to the core by enlightened embezzlement, and the Serbian Museum of Contemporary Art opened. The President personally wanted a culture cult. The institutions instituted…
Baked bribability bubbled. What was there to do but balk? Balkman simply let the Horrorkatze out of the bag.
Arrests followed, and after release, a new flame of fear was fanned… intimidation, ostracization, isolation… to guarantee the temperature of the bubonic reaction. Greased by greenbacks and sanguine memories, all safe pairs of hands tipped and toed the bidding of the big brokers, brooking no breach in their bribability.
Lost on the Autobahn between Berlin and Bagdad, at the corner of Peter, Fatma, Isi and Basil’s, a dilapidated jailhouse rots. But there is life in it still.
Balkman balks.
Immigrating into his double-digital diary, daily, he tears his fingers on the window of his smooth little screen…
These are remarkable images and his terrifying testimony.
Balkman Fingerpainting from Vladan Jeremic & Rena Rädle on Vimeo.
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More on The Salon of the Unbribeables: https://artseverywhere.ca/2017/11/08/unbribables/
More on detention case: Artists arrested during opening in Belgrade https://conversations.e-flux.com/t/artists-arrested-during-opening-in-belgrade/7195
The Diary of Balkman 