Media Lab Madrid: - THE MAKING OF BALKAN WARS: THE GAME

[Andrej Tisma]

Media Lab Madrid

Centro Cultural Conde Dunque

c/ Conde Dunque 9 -11

28015 Madrid

Spain

T: +34 91 8121123 / 8120939



The project was proposed at Media Lab by: Katerina Gregos, Sania Papa, and
Denys Zacharopoulos



Personal Cinema announces, The Making of Balkan Wars: The Game and The
Balkan Mall opening on the February 10th 2004 at 1 p.m. at the Media Lab
Madrid.



 “The Making of Balkan Wars: The Game” is a Personal Cinema project
primarily focused on the social and cultural issues within the Peninsula and
on the creation of networks between artists, art critics, writers and
curators from Southeastern Europe. It proposes some new media works created
by 51 participating artists investigating the Balkan territory and way of
life.



Both geopolitical war games and epic strategy video games are interrelated
in this multi-media project. While virtual battle scenes are celebrated for
their extreme realism, contemporary warfare has begun to resemble science
fiction. The reality (or virtual reality) presented by official narratives
and industrial entertainment does not adequately describe the experiences of
the people who are caught in the actual war games. In the real-time of CNN,
and in video games, the simplification of cultures and history is itself a
form of violence.

The Making of Balkan Wars: The Game is intended to counteract the
sensational spectacle of war presented by the media by deconstructing
stereotypes, focusing on the distortion of identities, and revising the
dominant logic of explanation.





“The Balkan Mall” video game, the central node of the project, created by
the Personal Cinema team, is the elevation of social, historical and
cultural elements of the Balkans into the form of an imaginary Balkan
shopping mall. It is a poetic metaphor, which has many moments of ironic
stance towards the prevailing multicultural concepts, historic disputes and
contemporary political developments in the area. The players and spectators
have the opportunity to learn how to behave and act in a simulated Balkan
reality, and are informed about their level of
Balkanization/De-Balkanization through an indicator within the interface of
the game. The game contains about 20 different spaces, and some 30 videos
from artists participating in the wider project; “The Making of Balkan Wars:
The Game”.



Following the “Myth of Interactivity” of new media, in contrast to old media
where the order of presentation is fixed, the users can now interact with
and within a media. They can choose which elements to display or which paths
to follow, creating each time a new pathway and generating each time a
unique work. In addition to the virtual space, there is a real space, a
three-wall projection of a virtual room in which both real and computer
users can select and project videos from the participating artists. In this
way the users become the co-authors and co-curators of the work. This leads
to changing the view and standards of the art system of curatorial
presentation, putting all of us (artists, critics, curators and spectators)
in an uncertain position of proposing a new art behavior.





Personal Cinema: Maya Bontzou, Andy Deck, Dimitris Dokatzis, Stelios
Giannoulakis, Vassilis Kokkas, Nikolas Kozakis, Ilias Marmaras, Panos
Papadopoulos, Yannis Scoulidas, Alexandros Spyropoulos, Stewart Ziff


Participating Artists: Robert Alias Dragot, Genti Shkurti (Albania);
Beatrijs Albers, Francis Schmetz, Jacques Lizene, Marie Andre, Eugene
Savitzkaya, Reggy Timmermans, Koen Wastijn-Deschuymer, Ria Pacquee
(Belgium); Albena Mihaylova, Krassimir Terziev  (Bulgaria); Irena Paskali,
Natasha Dimitrievska, Christina Ivanoska-Yane Calovski (FYROM / Macedonia);
Mathias Wagner K (Germany); Kostas Beveratos, Maya Bontzou, Dimitris
Dokatzis, Stelios Giannoulakis, Maurice Ganis, Ilias Marmaras, Angelo
Skourtis, Panos Vittorakis, Alexandros Spyropoulos, Dimitris Tsardakas
(Greece); Babis Kandilaptis, Nicolas Kozakis (Greece / Belgium); Vassilis
Kokkas, Dimitris Tzamouranis  (Greece / Germany); Chiara Passa, Antonio
Riello (Italy); Floe Tudor, Mona Vatamanu, (Romania);  Per Pegelow (Russia);
Andrej Tisma, Windows 99 - hammer creative (Serbia); Milena ZeVu (Serbia /
Hungary); Vuk Cosic (Serbia  / Slovenia); Aniceto Exposito – Lopez, Angel
Vergara (Spain / Belgium); Selda Ashal, Gulsen Bal, Cem Genser, Genco Gulan
(Turkey); Ruth Catlow (UK); Stewart Ziff (UK / USA); Andy Deck, Goron Dolan,
Morgan Showalter (USA)