Experiencing Interruptions?

IMMIGRATION IN SUITCASE

Conception:

For different reasons, outcast from their native born places, many people undertake dangerous journeys with the purpose to find better place for living. Many of them die during the way, traveling in suitcases, luggage-carriers and containers. Neno makes this performance as a research, to understand: what is it, which force so many people to immigrate in other country. What is the value of the emigration? And what is the value of the “better” life/ better?

Based on the idea that we unconsciously feel empathy with the characters in movie or in the picture, we watch; or in the book, we read, this performance is a result of the author’s desire to identify himself with the immigrants and to drive the spectators to put themselves in the place of the immigrants and to feel their suffering.

Not the governments, which accept them, but rather the governments, which force them go abroad, have to think on this problem, because the main reason for immigration is not the availability of good conditions in some countries but the absence of same conditions in some other countries.

Description:

It could be done directly on a street or in gallery space: in the open luggage-carrier a very small and old red car is visible closed suitcase. In the suitcase or box there is an alive man in embryonic position, who is the author of the project – Neno. Inside the box he is filming himself with video camera, which broadcasts video signal to a multimedia projector (beamer) or TV screen. The image of the sweating and suffering man in very uncomfortable position of the body in very tight space is projected on a big screen or wall or on TV monitor.

For example, the performance can be done also in cardboard box for home electric tool as big washing machine or similar - it is not obligation to be in suitcase (travel chest) or luggage carrier of a car (please, see the attached photos and the video-documentation!).

Please, find some links to video-documentation of previous participation of this video-performance in order the best of the performance itself:

• MONTAG MODUS I / 4 May 2015 / CHB (COLLEGIUM HUNGARICUM BERLIN) / Berlin, GERMANY: https://youtu.be/KpXADREmnn4

• TPA (Torino Performance Art Festival) / 14 June 2013 / GREEN CAT gallery / Turin, ITALY: https://vimeo.com/69328038

• 30th Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques / 10 November 2017 / Marseille, FRANCE: https://youtu.be/v65HMdTH2CI

• ZOOart Festival / July 2014 / Cuneo, ITALY: https://vimeo.com/107019508

These from Italy are excerpts, because the performance itself is all the same all the time (only from Marseille and Berlin it is full duration): I stay in a big suitcase or a box for half hour or more and filming myself inside. On the stage are just the box with me inside and a screen, where my face is visible. I do not do any grimaces or I do not talk - I just stay there - that's all - very minimalistic. My performance seems to be boring one, but very often serious themes are boring and not funny. It examines the a hypothetical illegal immigrant journey. Now such journey is not possible (no, it is possible, but it will be not successful), because now the custom officers are equipped with thermal scanners, which can "see" human body inside a box or whatever else. But in 2007, when I started to do this performance, thermal scanners were not very popular and a lot of people still did such trips, hiding themselves in boxes, baggage carriers of cars, tanks and other things.

http://www.nenobel.net/neno-perf-2014-immigration.htm
http://www.nenobel.net/neno-perf-2013-immigration.htm

  • Nэno Bэlchэv
    Director
  • Nэno Bэlchэv
    Writer
  • Nэno Bэlchэv
    Producer
  • Nэno Bэlchэv
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Other
  • Genres:
    video-art, performance
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    July 16, 2007
  • Country of Origin:
    Bulgaria
  • Country of Filming:
    Bulgaria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • SPHINX 2018 OEDIPUS TYRANNUS
    Thiba
    Greece
    June 4, 2018
    Greece Premiere
  • XXX Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques Festivalcurateurs: Naïk M'Sili and Marc Mercier, (catalog)
    Marseille
    France
    November 10, 2017
    French Premiere
    travel grant by Bulgarian Ministry of Culture
  • MONTAG MODUS: gallery CHB (Colegium Hungaricum Berlin), curator: Lena Szirmay-Kalos
    Berlin
    Germany
    May 4, 2015
    German premiere
  • ZooArt2014: site-specific exhibition in former zoo gardens, (catalog), curator: Michela Giuggia
    Cuneo
    Italy
    July 3, 2014
  • TPA: Torino Performance Festival; gallery Green Box, curators: Manuela Maco and Guido Salvini;
    Turin (Torino)
    Italy
    June 14, 2013
    Italian premiere
  • OTETZ PAISIY: the street festival, curator: Stefka Tzaneva
    Plovdiv
    Bulgaria
    June 8, 2013
  • AUGUST IN ART: International Biennial for Visual Arts, curator Maria Vasileva
    VARNA
    Bulgaria
    August 7, 2010
    National Premiere
  • THE INVISIBLE GENERATION IN SHENZHEN: Vision Forum in 4 consecutive cities; curators Per Huttner and Daniele Balit
    Shenzhen
    China
    October 25, 2009
    Asian premiere
    GRANT at the OCAT (OCT CONTEMPORARY ART TERMINAL of He Xiangning Art Museum) International Art Residency – 2009
  • KAUNAS IN ART “CONTEXTS”: festival for contemporary art
    Kaunas
    Lithuania
    December 11, 2008
    Lithualian premiere
  • BORDERING ON US: 2008 year’s edition of REDline
    Porto
    Portugal
    October 23, 2008
    World Premiere
    GRANT - artist in residency by REDline’08_Bordering on Us, programme in Espaço IMERGE of IDEIAS EMERGENTES (IMERGE)
Distribution Information
  • Neno Belchev
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Nэno Bэlchэv

Neno Belchev graduated in Mural Painting from the National Academy of Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. Neno works as video artist and filmmaker as well as in the fields of performance, installation, sculpture and new media. He has made one full-length movie, four medium-length documentaries and numerous short narrative films and video art works, which won prizes, awards and nominations from international video and film festivals in the United States, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria, as well as residency-grants in the United States, Russia, China, Japan, France and Portugal. Last one: prestigious XXVII-th CEC ArtsLink Fellowship Award for Foreign Artists (New York, USA). His works are possession of Xiangning Art Museum (Shenzhen, China), SAMSA (Sofia Arsenal Museum for Contemporary Art, Sofia, Bulgaria); private collections in the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Spain, Ukraine and others. Mr. Belchev is one of the founders of the International Video Art Festival Videoholica, Varna

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In my art works, I work in my own direction. My task as an artist is to look through the cover of things in their real essence. To provoke the people to see how of front of their own eyes their own world is changing. For me the art is a form of communication with other people and the artists has in their hands the art as a tool, in which the opportunity to provoke and change the thinking of the others is hidden.

I “say” seemingly well-known truths and facts, but by matching them with contradictory but very strong visual elements, which if considered at one level, seem to be in conflict with one another both ideologically and visually, but the appearance of these contradictory elements change the meaning deep in its roots and make it multileveled. As a result of it, I achieve multilevel message with strong irrational impact, which does not have to be considered by using logical thinking. The art is beyond the direct message. In my work, I use very often humour, beside that in the other hand I take my art very seriously.

The art is my way to be free.