KORETA – A Totalitarian Emancipation
Elisa Spiropali
After the collapse of communism, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had to accomplish two potentially contradictory processes; a vertiginous process of state-consolidation (to build new state structures), as well as democratization. Moreover, at the same historical juncture, these countries had to follow the path of democratization, with particular focus on individual liberties, while dealing with a violent, oppressive collective past.
These two logical clashes were accentuated by the fact that the beginning of the democratic transition meant a total transformation of these countries. They had to rebuild a new political, economic and social structure, a new consciousness, effective and democratic at the same time. Primarily, a new architecture of institutional arrangements was necessary to substitute the old structures and build the foundation for such a transformation. Different countries, as expected, choose different forms of institutional arrangements, different power structures, and different natures of executive leadership.
However different, and at different stages, the nature of these processes in transitional post-communists societies, has been, inconsistent to say the least. Stained by imperfections, interferences, extreme power struggles, cleavages of power and influence, weak historical institutional memory, the state and society have intertwined, often blaming each-other. The blame, the antagonism, is old.
The totalitarian communist state, "everything in the state, nothing outside of the state, nothing against the state" developed new political institutions and destroyed all social, legal and political traditions of the country. The state was in a perpetual motion-mania to permanently control the individual, the state ideology being that of transformation of human nature – raison d'état for the all pervading totalitarian organization of human life. The state was at war with the individual and with society, as it was.
Democratic transition changed the state and the society, but yet, a conflict between the two remains imminent. Despite the antagonism, and the early transition urge for absolute freedom, paradoxically, these societies seem to be looking for a functioning state. It is in this conflict between the state and society that modalities, procedures, processes are bended and modified, used and misused.
Vojislav Klačar's project takes the state to a state of 'total emancipation'; emancipation from the need to interact and adapt procedures to realities, protocols to power structures, states to societies. The performing of this absolute consistent and complex political system functionality, this "sterile" process of transparency and rationality that determines every step, every outcome, is a work of creation, an art piece in progress. It is transformative and perpetual, it is beyond the individual, beyond the dichotomy state-society. This work of creation, in perpetual progress, creates pure, state functions.
Juxtaposing this system of rational procedures to the reality of post-socialist societies, a gap is created, a contradiction, an enormous difference. Post-socialist states and societies are characterized by inconsistent processes, conflictual political relations, polarized debates, polarized societies, electoral problems, short-term interests influencing political processes, institutional clashes. The artist's creation, the fictional state, in all its visual components seems to project a new reality that is completely different, at times, opposed to the post-socialist realities.
This fictional construction aimed at a state of an ideal form, for a perfect functioning triggers the imagination of individuals, especially of individuals in transitional societies, where the experiments in political processes of an unconsolidated infrastructure have produced and reproduced severe economic and social consequences. The ideal political vision of Koreta, this constitution of a new political reality, is an attempt to reinvent decision-making, where the creator can influence but not change the course of events.
It is extremely impressive to see a created fictitious country with parties and coalitions, programmes, members and issues, parliamentary history, and regional organizations etc. 9 election cycles, no stains, no interferences, no riots, no complications, no fractions, where the potential for change is present, a possibility to observe critically and closely the mechanism of change of political culture and situations, and transformations of societies. In the context of a post-socialist society, where processes and consequences are perceived to be blurry, often non-transparent, confusing, unfair, easily manipulated, this political vision offers a stoic juxtaposition, an unparalleled work of the mind, a production that is at the same time rigid and creative, beyond one’s will and yet a work of participation, a work of immediate fate, and yet a long-term cooperation, up to change but yet essential in its inescapable fundamental rules. This framework of unmatched diligence is genial in its planning and yet looks simple in its enactment. Like all true products of the human mind, even if fictitious it rests on a fundamental truth; that realities can be created, that news paths can be opened, that models can change, that complex mechanism can be deconstructed and understood, that spectators can touch, can move, can participate.
Elisa Spiropali (Tirana) completed her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts where she obtained a B.A. in Politics and Economics, and is now doing her Master's at the University of Sussex. She joined MJAFT movement (Albania) in 2006 and till 2009 has been the movement's Policy Director.
Elisa Spiropali
After the collapse of communism, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had to accomplish two potentially contradictory processes; a vertiginous process of state-consolidation (to build new state structures), as well as democratization. Moreover, at the same historical juncture, these countries had to follow the path of democratization, with particular focus on individual liberties, while dealing with a violent, oppressive collective past.
These two logical clashes were accentuated by the fact that the beginning of the democratic transition meant a total transformation of these countries. They had to rebuild a new political, economic and social structure, a new consciousness, effective and democratic at the same time. Primarily, a new architecture of institutional arrangements was necessary to substitute the old structures and build the foundation for such a transformation. Different countries, as expected, choose different forms of institutional arrangements, different power structures, and different natures of executive leadership.
However different, and at different stages, the nature of these processes in transitional post-communists societies, has been, inconsistent to say the least. Stained by imperfections, interferences, extreme power struggles, cleavages of power and influence, weak historical institutional memory, the state and society have intertwined, often blaming each-other. The blame, the antagonism, is old.
The totalitarian communist state, "everything in the state, nothing outside of the state, nothing against the state" developed new political institutions and destroyed all social, legal and political traditions of the country. The state was in a perpetual motion-mania to permanently control the individual, the state ideology being that of transformation of human nature – raison d'état for the all pervading totalitarian organization of human life. The state was at war with the individual and with society, as it was.
Democratic transition changed the state and the society, but yet, a conflict between the two remains imminent. Despite the antagonism, and the early transition urge for absolute freedom, paradoxically, these societies seem to be looking for a functioning state. It is in this conflict between the state and society that modalities, procedures, processes are bended and modified, used and misused.
Vojislav Klačar's project takes the state to a state of 'total emancipation'; emancipation from the need to interact and adapt procedures to realities, protocols to power structures, states to societies. The performing of this absolute consistent and complex political system functionality, this "sterile" process of transparency and rationality that determines every step, every outcome, is a work of creation, an art piece in progress. It is transformative and perpetual, it is beyond the individual, beyond the dichotomy state-society. This work of creation, in perpetual progress, creates pure, state functions.
Juxtaposing this system of rational procedures to the reality of post-socialist societies, a gap is created, a contradiction, an enormous difference. Post-socialist states and societies are characterized by inconsistent processes, conflictual political relations, polarized debates, polarized societies, electoral problems, short-term interests influencing political processes, institutional clashes. The artist's creation, the fictional state, in all its visual components seems to project a new reality that is completely different, at times, opposed to the post-socialist realities.
This fictional construction aimed at a state of an ideal form, for a perfect functioning triggers the imagination of individuals, especially of individuals in transitional societies, where the experiments in political processes of an unconsolidated infrastructure have produced and reproduced severe economic and social consequences. The ideal political vision of Koreta, this constitution of a new political reality, is an attempt to reinvent decision-making, where the creator can influence but not change the course of events.
It is extremely impressive to see a created fictitious country with parties and coalitions, programmes, members and issues, parliamentary history, and regional organizations etc. 9 election cycles, no stains, no interferences, no riots, no complications, no fractions, where the potential for change is present, a possibility to observe critically and closely the mechanism of change of political culture and situations, and transformations of societies. In the context of a post-socialist society, where processes and consequences are perceived to be blurry, often non-transparent, confusing, unfair, easily manipulated, this political vision offers a stoic juxtaposition, an unparalleled work of the mind, a production that is at the same time rigid and creative, beyond one’s will and yet a work of participation, a work of immediate fate, and yet a long-term cooperation, up to change but yet essential in its inescapable fundamental rules. This framework of unmatched diligence is genial in its planning and yet looks simple in its enactment. Like all true products of the human mind, even if fictitious it rests on a fundamental truth; that realities can be created, that news paths can be opened, that models can change, that complex mechanism can be deconstructed and understood, that spectators can touch, can move, can participate.
Elisa Spiropali (Tirana) completed her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts where she obtained a B.A. in Politics and Economics, and is now doing her Master's at the University of Sussex. She joined MJAFT movement (Albania) in 2006 and till 2009 has been the movement's Policy Director.
