Concept, theoretical framework and description of the project

Pulled Out of the World
Goran Despotovski

The project Pulled Out of the World involves a two-part installation, one part of which is the work Exhaust, and the other is the work Neutral Viewpoint. Together, these two works communicate one of the basic features of the position of man in the environment of today’s world: non-recognition, whereby non-recognition refers to the impossibility of two humans truly connecting, but also refers to erasing the potential for an individual to establish a meaningful connection with the wider social community. The name of the installation is found in the analysis of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, in which Günter Anders considers the alienation and numbness of a man who is „merely alive, but no longer living in a world“.

The installation Pulled Out of the World is a result of many years of artistic research by Goran Despotovski and is closely related to the meta-theme of his work in the field of installation, Relics of Existence, and in a certain sense represents its final stage of realization. The theme Relics of Existence holds an important place in Despotovski’s oeuvre and includes almost all installations made by the artist, from 2008 until today. His idea framework, in the field of installations, rests on the notion of a man as a levitating being, that is, an individual who exists in a nebulous state between life and death, a man whose body is physically present in life, but a man who is emptied of any character content. That state of „non-life“, as the artist calls it, is not a role that man wanted or sought, but one that was created as a result of the oppressive action of circumstances and fate, and thus marks a large part of man’s historical existence. In this respect, man is a stranger in his own life and has lost the way to influence it. The theoretical framework of the meta-theme Relics of Existence has its starting point in the philosophy of existentialism, where it is most obviously connected to Serene Kierkegaard’s views on despair as a result of man’s specific position.

Goran Despotovski’s installations represent a man in the form of a figure/doll without a key characteristic of human physiognomy: without a face. The faceless doll symbolizes not only the suffering of an individual who has lost his spiritual image under the pressure of various social influences, but is a symbol for numerous missing, erased characters which life has turned into a faceless mass, a group of people who have found themselves in the same spot, but without real power to understand the position in which they were placed.

The work Еxhaust, which is planned to be realized as a spatial object, is an interactive installation. It consists of a stylized static vehicle similar to a trailer/cart, and twelve dolls in human life size, dressed in a classic male black suit (jacket and pants). The dolls are in continuous motion, which is made possible by compressors (fans), due to which they are alternately inflated and deflated. Their movements, similar to somewhat grotesque human bodily actions, do not allow them to be at rest at any moment, so these dolls are „forced“ to constantly perform their ritual dance of a trapped man seemingly ready for action, but in fact eternally restrained by his ties to the ground from which he cannot be separated. This work is interactive in the first place because of the relationship that is imperceptibly formed between the work Exhaust and the observers (visitors): the air, needed for the installation to move, is precisely the air that the observers (visitors) inhale and exhale. Thus, a link is created between the simulation of life (dolls) and real life (observers/visitors). The liveliness of the installation, but at the same time the inability to move it outside the physical spot where it was initially placed, is associated with man’s endless attempts to effectively uproot himself from one and root himself in another social environment, while characterizing those attempts as a parody and a tragedy at the same time.

The space between the two segments of the installation, which is otherwise empty, is filled only by white noise, constructed from several sources: the fan motors produce a constant dull tone, similar to a continuous flow of wind, while the occasional blows of the puppets’ draperies against each other introduce unexpected, softened sounds in an unpredictable rhythm. The movement of one segment and the absolute immobility of the other are thus connected by an indeterminate tone that creates a sound environment.

Opposite the piece Еxhaust, the installation Neutral Viewpoint will be placed over the entire side wall of the Pavilion. Built from panel forms, the installation Neutral Viewpoint consists of a shallow wooden front that bears resemblance to several familiar forms - it’s almost like some kind of means of transport or a building. A series of „windows“ opens through that form, where an endless group of dolls are placed, a total of one hundred and twenty of them, crowded one over the other. These dolls also symbolize a man, however, with the absence of even a suit, i.e. cloth covering their bodies, they suggest a different meaning: „bleached“ to the extreme (and literally), these dolls allude to the permanent loss of individual character and transfer to the reality of inanimate objects. The tension created between the state of imprisonment behind the wooden object and the real fact that these dolls cannot break through the barrier placed between them and the observers/visitors, contributes to the impression of anguish and the need to erase this scene from consciousness. Metaphorically, this is how the position of today’s man can be seen, as well as entire societies, which have decided to deprive certain individuals or groups of human features, to dehumanize them, and then permanently reject them. In such societies, there is a strong need to look away from the unpleasant sight of marginalized individuals or groups, which is what the work Neutral Viewpoint insists on.

The conceptual premise of the Pulled Out of the World project is based on the belief that the viewers will accept to communicate with the works as a need to reexamine their identity and their position in society. However, the project also counts with the possibility of the viewer recognizing the archetypal in both installations and reading the work as a „monument“ (or anti-monument) to an individual who tried but was conditioned by circumstances beyond his control which, in the end, placed his attempts in the domain of superfluous actions, thus turning him into another unpleasant fact of life, in front of which it is enough to turn your head the other way to make it disappear. However, the physical presence of even wandering and inanimate symbols which point to the existence of man underline the impossibility of completely erasing everything that is different from the community or from the memory of an individual.