Marko A. Kovačič selected for
video archival project Transitland EUROPA

Transitland EUROPA is a collaborative project organized by InterSpace (Sofia), transmediale (Berlin), Ludwig Musuem (Budapest) and associated partners D Media (Cluj), Videoaktiv and Colegium Hungaricum (Berlin). Tranitland Europa aims to create a video archive of 100 works spanning 20 years, starting from the fall of the Berlin wall. Since much of the history of the "new" European countries is being represented from the outside, this is an attempt to present a history from within.

The archive of 100 works will include works, produced in the period 1989-2008 and newly commissioned videos (produced in 2009). The works will be selected by a jury of external experts and co-organisers . The output will include archive jukeboxes and thematic compilations that travel to different venues in Europe, a website and online version of the archive for international access, a print publication and DVD compilation of the commissioned videos, and a combination of screenings and discursive events in Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany and associated partners' locations.

There were more than 350 works nominated, by 40 curators, art critics, filmmakers, and artists. The jury watched all the works that had been received over a 4 day period. The jury members were Edit Andras (art theoretician, Hungary), Dunja Blažević (art historian and director of Center of Contemporary Art, Sarajevo), Stephen Kovats (director of transmediale, Berlin), Olga Shishko (director of MediaForum, Moscow) and Kathy Rae Huffman (independent curator, Berlin). The group of five had the task to select 100 works for inclusion in the archive. The discussions were intense, but finally decisions were made for the following reasons, to create a program that is inclusive and to represent the various positions and issues from 25 post-communist countries:

• Balkans: Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia;
• The Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia;
• Former USSR: Armenia, Azerbajan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine;
• Central Europe: Germany (especially GDR), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland.

Barbara Borčić (art historian and director SCCA-Ljubljana) nominated video works from Slovenia, included in SCCA video archive DIVA Station:

• Marko A. Kovačič, No More Heroes Any More (1992) and Dossier 83:03: Video reconstruction (2003);
• ZANK, Autobus (1993) and Old and New (1997);
• Ema Kugler, Menhir (1999); Mirko Simić, Out of Memory (1994);
• Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Brotherhood and Unity (2006).

The jury selected one video: Marko A. Kovačič No More Heroes Any More (lenght: 18:15; year: 1992; production: V.S. VIDEO / Forum Ljubljana).

"The complex No More Heroes Any More project - installations, video, and performance - is intrinsically defined by small mise en scenes, transformed mechanical figurines, and the performance of the main protagonists. All these elements are demonstrated and staged live in front of the audience thus creating a multimedia project emanating from the schizophrenia of life itself." (Station DIVA)

InterSpace will host an event to premiere the selection in Sofia in September; a screening and symposium will take place at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest in October, and a weekend marathon screening in Berlin, at the CHB (Collegium Hungaricum Berlin) will take place
November 6, 7 and 8, 2009, coordinated by transmediale.

Transitland EUROPE

Project is partly supported by Program Culture 2007-2013.