Bohdanka will be without her Dad This Christmas
(with Michelle Siml as the Pode Bal group, 2010)
Installation project, media texts about death, found objects, video, interactiveinstallation, performance, public intervention, mixed media, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice
Peter Sadofsky and Michelle Siml during media interview
ON DEATH
This installation project was created specifically for the House of Art in Ceske Budejovice. The exhibition was about death and was titled “Bohdanka will be without her Dad This Christmas”. It ran in December 2010. The main leitmotif of the installation were media headline texts about death collected from a popular Czech tabloid newspaper Blesk. These often bizarre phrases were accompanied by found objects of mundane character that were all painted grey. The other parts of the installation were bags filled with the average amount of used shoes a man uses during his lifetime (see previous page); Death counter - a computer counting the amount of people dying in the Czech Republic during the time of the exhibition based on a statistical algorithm; DeathS01E01 - video installation with short cuts from well known films showing moments of death (opposite page).
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice (headlines taken from tabloid news: "She sang and died", "He unzipped his jacket and died"
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice (headlines taken from tabloid news: "Monica's coffin was showered with teddy bears", "Risko died malnourished and hypothermic"
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice (headlines taken from tabloid news: "Young model fell asleep and never woke up", "He was dying in his sleep"
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice, Bags filled with the average amount of used shoes a man uses during his lifetime
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice, Death counter: computer counting the amount of people dying in the Czech Republic during the time of the exhibition based on a statistical algorithm
Installation view, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice, DeathS01E01 -- video installation with short cuts from well known films showing moments of death
SELL YOUR URNS
Before and during the Exhibition, ads were placed in the local newspaper and flyers were posted in public places titled: URN BUYOUT. The artists offered a relatively small amount of money (approx. 200 USD) for any urn containing the remains of a dead relative. Interested parties were to sell their urns directly in the gallery during show hours, becoming part of the project. This social action/intervention caused a massive media reaction with all major national news, including the tabloid Blesk whose headlines were used, reporting on what they termed an outrage and moral black-mail, completing the project’s intended experiment in media space as well. The purchased urns will be used for the planned continuation of this project.
Advert offering to buy urns for apron. 200 USD