Satelite Station, 8mm film found on a flea-market in Belgrade, was accepted among the members of the multimedia group Kosmoplovci as a piece of powerfull poetry as it was, so they decided not to make any interventions on it, but to record it again and underline it with original music. The old 8mm (promo-educational) film about the construction of the first satelite station in former Yugoslavia in late seventies, contains a sort of introduction which is a contemporary survey on history of human kind through history of comunications, and also offers a vision of promissing future.
Filmed process of Japanese and Yugoslav engineers building together a huge technological miracle in deep yugoslav province, with touching seriousness and dedication, depicts not only (now lost) naivety in faith in progress, but also reviels certain specific beauty in simplified design of the material which was meant to impress and fascinate. The station, officially opened by president Tito himself, looks like a futuristic monument of hopes and expectations.
To record it again by web-cam, symbolically, as a confirmation of the significance of the only left document of its existance ( it was destroyed during the war in 1999.), and to follow the fascinating rythm of rising concrete sceleton by Corrosion music, was a way to bring its monumental function back. The strongest impression is the aesthetic domination of the construction growing into an element of spring landscape and shining through expected future time.
Playing with spectator' s ability to empathize, avoiding any sort of focalization and comment, Kosmoplovci also achieved a certain paradoxal symbiosis of compassion and irony, showing how easy it is to turn expected future to unexpected past, so the station becomes a metaphore of the grotesque contrast between two aspects of the same time period: expected and realised.
Satelite Station was screened for the first time in October Art Saloon in Belgrade 2001.
Kosmoplovci is a group of artists who are experimenting with digital forms and alternative comics, web design, video and music. It was founded in 2001. by joining already active computer demo groups (Corrosion) with alternative comic authors (StudioStrip).
OFFICIAL PAGE:
http://www.kosmoplovci.net/kosmoplovci/satelitska/
DIRECT DOWNLOAD:
http://www.kosmoplovci.net/files/video/kosmoplovci-satelitskastanica.avi
[54mb divx avi, 128k mp3 audio, playtime: 14 minutes]
