States Of Freedom

a project by

Elena Panayotova

2000-04

Freedom as obligation

       It is a natural duty of each artist to observe and register the processes that occur around him. And to react, even not always in a rational way, to what happens. In such stormy period as in the last decade, full of political changes and social shocks, of turning pints in public spirit, challenges and victories, people react differently and learn to develop their own characters. In this sense artists have even higher responsibilities.

       Parallel to research works socially adequate artists observe and analyze  all events trying to give the facts more abstract  or deeply emotional interpretations than the pure science can. Contemporary visual arts “act” already not only in gallery’ spaces & museums for a long time and have stepped beyond the narrow frames of commonly accepted aesthetics and simple beauty. Even the notion “work of art” has lost its elite sense long ago and now sounds pretentious and hollow.

       Art attempts to answer questions that appear important for more and more people, outside the constant target art audience. Arts rather inspire and provoke new points of view, ideas, sentiments, ways of observation, of analysis and synthesis.

       Nowadays' audience doesn’t respect any more the idiocrathic system’ rules that exclude any varieties and differences. Contemporary art’ consumers are not only passive viewers, but take a role in the whole process of creating and building up the work: often intentionally provoked by the artist or sometimes spontaneously reaching the author’s idea. As a matter of fact artworks today should be aimless and senseless without close relation between artist and audience. Of much greater importance is the mutual  exchange of ideas, views, opinions and information, that help to build contacts or to break them, to turn the art piece into a visual proof of the moment, or into a process of common knowledge.

I am searching this equivalent contact with the audience through three various projects united under the title “States Of Freedom”. I also try to provoke reactions on different levels and to shatter the accumulated prejudices. I expect one closer look at the life changes, we are used to be with every day and can not notice and realize clear enough.

The project “States Of Freedom” consists of 3 parts:

1. We’re All Equal

2. Don’t Look Back With Anger

3. We’re All Bulgarians

     In all three parts of the “States Of Freedom” project no one photographed person / face is repeated. I have attempted to include maximal number of personalities, with their different characters and outlook. To my opinion even after the partly successful experiments with cloning, science can barely reach the capacities of Nature to create  the unbelievable harmonious variety of species and human characters.