Elizabeta Kostadinovska
Bilingual /diptych/ serial:
The deconstructed novel :: Die Leinwand / Платно / The Canvas
by Benjamin Stein, 2017- today
+ English translation
mixed media works on (two) book pages :: the same part of the novel from the German original and the Macedonian translation are the basis of the works – chosen words/new text, drawing, color paper collage – are making their twin-look unique – separating them from the others. There were few earlier works with the same page number or only in one language, but as here described in diptych are following parts:
- Визија во сино/Vision in Blau/Vision in blue, 2017 МК A4 / 2018 DE A3
- published in perspective 94/95 in b/w
- Love is punk, not dead, 2020
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- published in the bilingual book of poetry 2020
- art book in 44 copies
- trilingual multimedia poetry performance with music by Laibach premiere at SlovoKult 2020
- Short part of the background video for the perfromance ::
- Poesie des Grauens/Поезија на ужасот/Poetry of horror, 2021 (soon more)
- Vegvisir-Wegweiser-Патоказ-Wayfinder, 2022
- 2022 selected as an artwork + audio of the multilingual polyphonic text+sound for the OSTEN Biennial of Drawing
- bilingual polyphony and sound in multimedia poetry performance, premiere June 18 at West Germany in Berlin
Some works of the serial, as other interdisciplinary artworks by the artist, are continuing their extended expression in multimedia poetry performance (video projection+sound+voice+text/poem), -the artworks are projected in the video and the new text is presented in multilingual (and polyphonic) vocal expression – using ready-made sound/music by selected bands/artists (Laibach for Love is punk not dead), or as for Vegvisir in collaboration with the sound artist Seht Zhan.
About the deconstruction:
The deconstruction of a text already begins with the author, but here it is continued on several levels: ⇒ with the translation from German – the artist is also a translator and has translated the book into Macedonian ⇒ through text reduction a new text/poem + drawing is created on the book page ⇒ the (almost) same text is selected in the other book in the other language (and the book page is provided with drawing) ⇒ the book page is separated from the respective book and made into a small collage with background of color papers glued and framed as pictures ⇒ A4
before that scanned and high quality prints are made (in high gloss) ⇒ For the art book ⇒ they are sewn together with random pages from a catalog of the Berlin auction house “Jeschke van Vliet” with a sewing machine by the artist ⇒ and returned to book(let) format ⇒ Each piece of the limited copies available (has 8-9 pages, is unique and is wrapped in red transparent textbook foil – you have the plain texts as title page (DE) and back page (MK), and the English translation as an additional loose page inside : :
for the multilingual (polyphonic) multimedia poetry performance :: a background video with pictures of the artwork (and others) is made, connected to sound – in a rehearsal with the sound artist (and some prerecording) or chosen tracks combined and connected to the video. To that prepared background the text is presented live multilingual (and in polyphony) – alone or with sound artist – sometimes adding other expressions (dance, theater) – which all enter, deconstruct, extend and exit the actual work, bringing it for a while to another dimension (outside of it’s static state).
The deconstructed novel is a serial that is still work in progress, but parts of it had already some presentations. It already has strong contemporary artistic expressions, but also the possibility to grow.