The Semiotics Of Confusion - Absolutno

Afterimage, Jan, 2001

APSOLUTNO

The independent association APSOLUTNO was founded in 1993 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia through a collaboration of its four members: two currently living in Yugoslavia, one in Hungary and one in the United States. Since 1995 the projects have been signed APSOLUTNO, without any reference to personal names.

The word APSOLUTNO means "absolutely." Grammatically, adverbs can modify various elements and take different positions within a sentence. This flexibility is an important characteristic in the work of the association. The word APSOLUTNO is often used in the titles of works to emphasize certain meanings. The production of APSOLUTNO started in the field of fine arts. Gradually, it has developed to include not only aesthetic, but also cultural, social and political aspects. The work of APSOLUTNO is based on interdisciplinary research into reality, with the aim to make it open to new readings. This is an open process that focuses on diverse phenomena in our surroundings and therefore requires continual perceptiveness in order for such phenomena or places to be noticed, understood, interpreted or marked. Projects are often realized in public spaces or in locations that have specific purposes, such as shipyards, bridges, cemeteries or any of a number of borders. The artistic conception is based on the principle th at the way to approach the global is through the local. Therefore, projects typically begin in response to a sociological, cultural or political stimulus from the immediate surroundings.

The choice of medium is a very important part of the creative process, as APSOLUTNO regards the medium as an equally relevant element of the work. The production of APSOLUTNO is thus realized in various media--video, printed matter, installations, site specific projects, performances, audio, CD-ROM and Internet projects--depending on the project concept.

The piece "Semiotics of Confusion" (1999) arose from the visual research that APSOLUTNO conducted on the national symbols in official use in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the mid- to late-1990s. APSOLUTNO documented flags, border markers, coats-of-arms, banknotes, passports and other official documents issued by the authorities as well as various public individual responses to these symbols. It is important to note that the real facts are arbitrary, determined by the time and place where they were collected (on various occasions from 1995 to 1998, in Novi Sad and Belgrade, Yugoslavia). They nevertheless illustrate the variety of semiotic activities, both official and individual, that reflect events in the social and political sphere.

Since 1991 five new states have emerged in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia, and it is very likely that more will be defined. This process of disintegration and formation has been followed and in some cases preceded by feverish symbol-engineering: old national and state symbols have been discarded, ancient ones revived or recycled and others completely abandoned for new ones. New authorities have attached enormous significance to the introduction of new symbols, as though, through these, it would be possible to create a new sense of national identity, and therefore a new political and ideological framework. In other words, the change on the symbolic level was seen as an important vehicle of political change. Communication via symbols was a language that people understood and to which they responded.

The urgency and importance of the introduction of new national symbols are easy to illustrate by comparing the dates when laws regulating the use of national symbols were passed, with the dates when the new states were officially established. In Croatia, for example, the constitution of the Socialist Republic of Croatia was amended in July 1990, when the word "socialist" was dropped from the name, the red star removed from the national flag and the socialist coat-of-arms replaced by Croatia's historical coat-of-arms. A law concerning the coat-of-arms, the flag and the National Anthem of the Republic of Croatia was adopted in Parliament on December 21, 1990. A day later, on December 22, Croatia passed a new constitution allowing for secession from the former Yugoslav Federation. [1] The process was similar in Slovenia, which declared itself a sovereign state on June 25, 1991 and, at the same time introduced a new flag and coat-of-arms. On that day the new flag was hoisted officially for the first time in fron t of the Slovenian Parliament, and beside it, the old flag with the red star was lowered, in a symbolic gesture of replacement. [2]

However, this process of changing national and state symbols was not always clear and straightforward. In some cases it meandered, sometimes coming across unexpected reactions, both internally and externally. In Macedonia, a new flag was adopted. The design was selected from more than 100 proposals which were entered into an open competition. The flag immediately came under attack from Greece, which maintained that the Vergina Sun, the central symbol on the flag, belonged to Greek cultural heritage. Greece also protested against the use of the word "Macedonia" as the official name of the new state. The dispute was resolved in 1995 by a UN agreement, [3] according to which Macedonia was recognized as "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and was required to design a new flag within 30 days. The present flag of Macedonia was finally adopted three years after independence. Nevertheless, the name of the country remains temporary.