Scheissliche Ostblocker, 1998/2008

Photo: Ernst Moritz
Collection

Wall text
Dimensions site specific


In his wall installation Scheissliche Ostblocker Boris Ondreička presents a text consisting of (self-) designations inspired by a Nina Simone song calling herself names. The artist puts into words how the world around sees or could see him: "They call me subject, inhabitant, citizen and Slovak. They call me foreigner, alien, European, but mostly Scheissliche Ostblocker' (shitty Eastern Bloc bloke). The poem/song-like text motivates a performative and physical reading; an interpretation through (rhythmic) spoken word. Thereby it relates to the psychological effects of (self-) therapy through a ritualized process of self-acceptance and self-healing with mirrored trance-like repetition of the actual accusations. The process of (re-) appropriation allows for the potential victim of othering to re-conquer its territory as the used weapons get subverted thus use and harmless.


*1969 in Zlaté Moravce, Slovakia I Living and working in Bratislava, Slovakia