Watch video documentation, list of previous participations and a GIF version of the video itself bellow!
CAUTION!!! Caution! Please, do not do this at your home! Even do not try!! All the footage in thеsе videos is shot as a result of long years of practicing Kung Fu, transcendental meditation and happy coincidence. This video deals with a message with an irrational impact, which does not have to be considered by using logical thinking!
The main characters in this video are the famous icons of communism: SICKLE AND HAMMER. The action in the video is a visualization of Bulgarian saying: TO HIT /TO DASH /TO HUSTLE / TO BEAT / TO KNOCK SOMETHING IN YOUR HEAD!!, TO BEFFET IT IN YOUR HEAD!! – Which means: somebody made enormous efforts to have or to achieve something that he/she doesn't need after that (if Neno explains it correctly).
This video is a part of his last series of videos "POST-СОЦ-GODS", where Neno deals with the religious and sacred function of gods and replaces them with icons of the post-socialistic time as Lenin, Stalin, Mao and so on, by putting himself on their place. For him making such a parallel is important for the understanding what drive made so many people to follow them in the failure implementation of this utopia... Because, 25 years after fall down of the Berlin Wall, Neno still has a lot of "communism" in his head, that's why, the video also can be considered as his private quest to knock the "stupid communism" out of his head.
On the other hand, the Berlin Wall has been destroyed by Berlin citizens by hammers, pickaxes and whatever they had, but this Wall still exists in the people's minds and it is not possible to destroy it using simply sickle and hammer. Neno knows that, but he actually tries to remind that the Berlin Wall still exists.
The video "SICKLE AND HAMMER" has been screened at:
19th May – 30th September 2017 – 23rd International Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Gabrovo, BULGARIA;
24 January 2017 – 121 & 1 International Video Event, Gate 3 Gallery, curators - Yoss Stybel & Vadim Nemirovskiy, Haifa, ISRAEL;
October 2015 – INSOMNIA DYSLEXIA: 5th International Short Video Biennial, curator: Ece Pazarbaşı, P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
September 2015 – EESA Exhibition: Between democracies 1989- 2014: Memory and Commemoration. Curator: Judy Peter, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
March 2015 – CAVIA'S Amsterdam Experimental Film & Video Festival Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
January 2015 – ART FOR CHANGE: common retrospective exhibition of last 25 year in Bulgarian contemporary art, curator Maria Vassileva, СГХГ (Sofia City Art Gallery), Sofia, BULGARIA
July 2014 – ZOOart: site-specific art festival, Cuneo, ITALY
December 2013 – FIRST PRIZE at DUPINI LIKE: international video art exhibition, (project of DUPINI art group), the Old Post Office, Veliko Turnovo, BULGARIA
October - November 2013 – EAST+EUROPE: Eastern European Contemporary Art Exhibition in the frames of the 3rd International World Culture Festival 2013: Lasting Legacies of Eastern Europe (世界文化藝術節2013-東歐芳華), curator: Mee Ping Leung, (catalog), HONG KONG CITY ART HALL / HONG KONG, CHINA
June 2013 – KoshmART: contemporary art exhibition (catalog), in the frames of Sofia Design Week, Sofia, BULGARIA
April 2013 – KoshmART: contemporary art exhibition (catalog), GRAFIT gallery, Varna, BULGARIA
Some documentation about the "dark" version ot the video "SICKLE AND HAMMER":
1 September 2014 /SICKLE AND HAMMER (dark version) as a site-specific video-installation in the abandon museum of
Bulgaro-Soviet Friendship / The Hill of Cranes, Varna, BULGARIA
Some documentation about the "home" version ot the video "SICKLE AND HAMMER":
April 2013 / in "KoshmART": contemporary art exhibition (catalog) GRAFFIT gallery / Varna, BULGARIA
The "home" version ot the video "SICKLE AND HAMMER" has been screened at:
November 2013 - DUPINI LIKE: international video art exhibition, the Old Post Office, Veliko Turnovo, BG
October - November 2013 – EAST+EUROPE: Eastern European Contemporary Art Exhibition in the frames of the 3rd International World Culture Festival 2013: Lasting Legacies of Eastern Europe (世界文化藝術節2013-東歐芳華), curator: Mee Ping Leung, (catalog), HONG KONG / HONG KONG, CHINA
June 2013 – KoshmART: contemporary art exhibition (catalog), in the frames of Sofia Design Week, Sofia, Bulgaria
April 2013 – KoshmART: contemporary art exhibition (catalog), GRAFIT gallery, Varna, BULGARIA
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17 October - 3 November 2013 / in EAST+EUROPE (東+歐) Eastern European Contemporary Art Exhibition in the frames of the 3rd International World Culture Festival 2013: Lasting Legacies of Eastern Europe (世界文化藝術節2013-東歐芳華) (catalog)
curator: Mee Ping Leung
Hong Kong City Art Hall / HONG KONG / HONG KONG, CHINA
November 2013 / at the international video art exhibition
DUPINI LIKE / organisers DUPINI art group
OLD POST OFFICE BUILDING / Veliko Turnovo, BULGARIA
