Today.Az » Arts & Entertainment » YARAT! presents "Transcommunication: invasion of senses" project by Teymur Daimi - PHOTOS
07 July 2012 [09:25] - Today.Az
The YARAT! nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art of Azerbaijan presented Teymur Daimi's project "Transcommunication: invasion of senses" in Baku on Friday.
This media project touches upon the important issues of globalization, transnational factors, conceptual power and the impact of mass media, as well as the issue of detachment as result of globalization.
This work can be seen on the Fountains Square that dates back to last quarter of XIX century and is placed at the very heart of Baku. The square was designed as a place for conducting parades and previously had three different names: Kolyubakin Square, Parapet and the Vain Garden. A monument of Alexander II was planned and the square was to be renamed Imperial Square, however the monument was never built because of the October revolution, the Square was renamed the Carl Marx Garden. Gradually it was turned into a public park in 1984 that was covered with paving stones and adorned with several fountains.
The significance that makes this place different from all the other areas is its centricity and footfall and today during the era of consumerism it is full of famous brands. Placing any piece of art at the Fountains Square is not only beneficial in terms of accessibility but is also prestigious symbolically (thus the conceptual power reveals itself). The most renowned international brands are intentionally situated exactly at the Fountains Square. Its positioning at the very heart of the city signifies the power of international corporations. Transnational factors tend to erase the uniqueness of a single culture and ignore cultural and historical identities of nations. This may lead to a personal detachment from spiritual roots and one's individual traits.
The aim of the Transcommunication: invasion of senses media project is to emphasize this problem by creating a situation of intellectual provocation, motivating people who pass by to think about what they view on the monitor. They will observe 'Hollywood movies' tag lines (a variant of a branding slogan typically expressing the main message of the movie) appearing on the transforming background... The viewer will observe 33 advertising slogans, while absorbing 33 'Hollywood movies'. Quoting Gilles Deleuze, the viewer will see "concepts rather than percepts" of the movie, its pure meaning. The artist emphasizes 'Hollywood movies' as one of the transnational products of globalization that aggressively implants the same way of thinking and behavioural model of acting all around the world.
The installations defines a transnational Hollywood concept, being poured out of the monitor placed on top of a shopping center that is another symbol of cultural and economical expansion. The point of this meta-movie is that one will be able to see not only the tag lines but also other expressions, contrary in their meaning. These expressions are dealing with simple human relations and are directed at every individual... Therefore along with the flow of impersonal transnational messages, one will perceive humanistic messages that challenges them.
The Fountains Square, which was also known as the "Parapet", was formed in the heart of Baku as a rather small but extremely important public garden in the middle 1930s. That moderate-size green park was laid out due to demolition of a number of buildings along Krivaya and Kolyubakin streets (later called Yefim Saratovets street and nowadays known as Nigar Rafibeyli street). Pedestrian zone was furthermore broadened in the middle of 80s. Along its perimeter the Fountains Square is built up with diverse architectural structures starting from buildings of an oil boom times (1872-1920) and of Stalinist Empire-style to Khruschev-era as well as modern constructions "Nargiz" shopping center.
The green plants of the Fountains Square also have their interesting stories. For example, the famous palm tree near the "Nargiz" shopping center was once called by the older generation "Castro's palm", according to rumors: the tree was presented to the former mayor of Baku Alish Lambaranski by Fidel Castro.
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