Turbo Sculpture (english), 2010
video essay, 18: 29 min
courtesy of the artist

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Turbo Sculpture is a video essay by ALEKSANDRA DOMANOVIC which questions the emergence of a new kind of public art in ex-Yougoslav republics: due to the lack of sufficient reference points or a younger history, monuments to heroes of pop culture like BRUCE LEE, BOB MARLEY or ROCKY BALBOA have been erected in many places that were at war for over a decade in the 1990’s.

What interested me about the “turbo sculptures” in the former Yugoslavia was precisely the lack of any apparent local connection to the figures honoured. The inhabitants of Zitiste, in northeastern Serbia, had no immediate link to Rocky Balboa or Sylvester Stallone or Philadelphia, but still they decided to build a monument to Rocky. They believed the character represented noble values which are universal, and also that it would bring media attention to a remote Serbian village, which it did.

The term “turbo sculpture” did not actually exist before – I coined it for the video. But it was a logical continuation of postwar Eastern European genres such as turbo TV and turbo folk and turbo architecture, all of which are based on exaggerations and random amalgamations of the local and global. – ALEKSANDRA DOMANOVIC in conversation with DEAN KISSICK

Born in Serbia and brought up in Slovenia, ALEKSANDRA DOMANOVIC‘s work often takes references to the techno movement which played a unifying role for the young postwar generation in former Yugoslavia. ALEKSANDRA now lives in Berlin, where she spends most of her time making art and showing it both on the internet and in galleries around the world. Additionally she has been blogging along with OLIVER LARIC, CHRISTOPH PRIGLINGER and GEORG SCHNITZER on VVORK.com since 2006.

And good news: Turbo Sculpture is currently part of the exhibiton HOTAVANTGARDEHOTHOT at Oslo 10, Basel until February 12th, 2012