City of Sarajevo Septerber 4, 1997
In December 1997 this e-mail
interview was conducted between Fred Lewis from Art Minimal & Conceptual
Only and the Artist, Ameli Tancica.
Fred
Were there any problems in getting into the country?
Did the authorities give you any trouble once you were there?
Ameli
There were no problems or obstacles whatsoever. Everything went in perfect order. The Meeting Point was organized highly professionally by SCCA and that was very encouraging. Sarajevo is the city of angels and its soul is exceedingly sensible. Therefore, everything that has positive direction towards the "mind frame" where we sometimes go and ask questions or where we sometimes go and feel the answers, has its place in the City of Sarajevo. Just like Yves soul, which I tried to materialize, and I think I have done it thanks to the people who live in this extraordinary place.
Fred
What were some of the locations in Sarajevo you visited and walked through. Did you have a pre-ordained route, or did you randomly walk through the streets?
Ameli
I felt I was being carried away. I spent all night awake, waiting for the dawn. There was no pre-ordained tour for my walk but I started in the space where "The Meeting Point" took place. That space is located at "Bascarsija" which is the old part of Sarajevo. It is a market of traditional trades and it is crowded during the day. While I was walking, a friend of mine took Polaroid shots of me which I was then attaching to the walls I was passing. A couple of citizens saw us and looked at us with surprise.
Fred
"True naivete" transforms the will into the body of the dream, so that when the magical identification is made - as Artaud saw in Balinese drama - it is made with the beauty of appearence. Sometimes people have a great idea, but are not able to pull it off. You were able to materialize the thought from illusion/idea to reality - reality made real. Throughout history, artists and writers have tried to leave/break through the barrier of the theater - the 4th wall. Was the audience meant to be part of the illusion which has become real?
Ameli
It is my belief that Art exists in our collective mind, and that is only a matter of will to pull it out in the physical light. The same will drives us to understand life. The same will that keeps us waking up in the morning. The same will that makes the void limitless. The same will every human being can feel and use. Use it in a sense of trying to address questions and answers.
I live Art as a pure communication and I see every act of Art as a dialogue in a relation of questions and answers. More important, I see every man/woman as a part of this dialogue. Not as an audience, but as artists who are sailing in the ocean of our collective thought. Art is a journey. A journey that somebody will invite us on. The rest of us will follow the dialogue depending on how big we are and if we are capable of reaching the collective mind - for instance, believing the beauty of the Blue Energy. "Break on through to the other side" as the American Poet Jim Morrison said.
There are no artists and audience. When you divide us on artists and audience, you create an art market which is not the true purpose of true art. We are all artists, as Joseph Beuys believed. We are all part of the communication. We are all searching for answers. The only question that one can answer with certainty is if one is aware of the will that drives us in our ultimate quest or not.
I was not thinking of the audience to be a part of the illusion. The Homage to Yves Klein was a personal experiment in a way. I wanted to implicate my own experience into the dialogue. I took a journey in the micro-cosmos of my mind. The only audience that I considered to have was me. The performance was part of the festivals' official program, and people knew about my work. However, only a few true artists came to take part in this speechless communication. While I was covering myself with the Blue color, I was also part of the small "audience" who was ready to blend into the experience of The Blue Energy which was coming closer with every tick of the clock.
Fred
Ameli, do you feel you imbued the onlookers with the soul of Yves? Do you feel you imbued the soul of Sarajevo with the soul of Yves?
Ameli
That was inevitable. It is the sublime sensibility of Yves' work that I find inspiring. IKB itself, as a medium, has some magic key that opens the door of intuitive communication that we can sense but not understand entirely. I like to call this experience "The Blue Energy," as I pointed out earlier. Dawn carries an idea of The Blue Energy around the planet. It happens every day once. It is our choice to feel it or not.
I think I imbued the city of Sarajevo and my colleague artists with the soul of Yves.
Fred
With his leap, Yves Klein disappeared into the void - into the imagination. You leaped into, disappeared into the light - "the blue plenitude of appearance" (Herbert Blau). Do you feel it necessary that the world outside Sarajevo see this beautiful sight of the human blue blending with, and to my mind washing away the red of the blood?
Ameli
Sarajevo is a very special place to me and I like to believe to the world too. I would like if my images could reach the people around the world and show them the way to The Blue Energy, like Yves' work has done. I have leaped into the light and I have reached the point of living the Yves idea. That is very exiting to me because it suggests that Yves' Art is somewhat practical - if we can say that. I mean, you can practice his idea and get very profound results. I have a videotape of my performance. Every time I watch the video, I relive my little experiment. My mind blends with the environment we live in and I like to believe that I feel like Yves felt when he leaped into the void.
The time I spent in Sarajevo during the aggression has affected me deeply. Everything that the crisis has brought along has led me towards the understanding of the Blue Power and feeling the void. I would say that I have learned to put the red of the blood (reflecting death) and the blue of the light (reflecting life) together, next to each other, and I believe that is very important. It is important because that gave me the ability to step into the void, come back, and do it repeatedly. It gave me the ability to live the death as an integral part of the life. I learned that out of my own life experience and I feel very comfortable with it.
As Damien Hirst put it once, saying that he felt comfortable when the picture of him dying together with his girlfriend came across his mind. I feel the same way in love and in life and death.
Fred
You are within reach of death in the streets of Sarajevo. Are you limiting - containing death - repelling the horror - by inserting yourself, the blue, into it like the leap of Yves Klein?
Ameli
Yes, I was repelling the horror and its images which media consumed over the crisis. By making the Polaroids and attaching them around the City I tried to fill the City of Sarajevo and its streets with images of the void. I tried to bring the void closer and make it easier to break through. Polaroids were directions to the void.
Fred
This is not theater. It is pure art and it is more than art. It is pure being. As Yves put his wet canvas on the top of his car during a rainstorm and let the drops hit the paint, you have let your painted canvas penetrate the presence of the reality of the inhumanity to man perpetrated on the people of Sarajevo. You have lept from illusion / an idea / your mind - breaking the frame of reality and illusion simultaneously.
I think, also, you were very brave. We are very excited to be able to see what you have done.
Ameli
Thank you.