Amerika (5)

Kristina Leko, 2003/05

210' DV (48' + 33'55'' + 58' + 54'30'' + 16'20'')
Five-channel video installation / Optional: five-channel video installation expanded with objects/artifacts (edition 3 + 2)

Croatian, English, Italian

Collection/s: MSU Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb




The five-channel video installation consists of five video projections or screens showing simultaneously talking heads of five elderly women. The artwork was created in the context of Kristina Leko’s exhibition project America, based on the life stories of five elderly Croatian women living in Astoria, NYC. Each video channel features one of the women and her life story. From left to right, in order of appearance, Ljubica Zic speaks in Croatian (video duration 48'), Miriam Busanic in Croatian and English (33'55''), Margaret Zgombic in English (58'), Marcella Bonich in Croatian (54'30'') and Nori Boni Zorovich in Italian (16'20''). Each woman shares selected moments and aspects of her life which relate to different themes such as: immigration, departure, hunger, the old country, home, return, work, working class, money, family, children, communism/capitalism, freedom, the American dream, etc. Ljubica Zic talks about her trauma of departure, about raising her children and passing on her feelings about her old country to them, about her volunteer work in the Croatian Catholic Mission. Miriam Busanic tells us about her unfulfilled dreams of returning to the place where she grew up, as well as her memories of the years she spent in an Italian refugee camp. Margaret Zgombic takes the opportunity to pay tribute to her parents and their role in the Croatian community in Astoria, where they dedicated their lives to helping their many friends and relatives immigrate. Marcella Bonich tells of her family's life split between the two continents, of her work as a teacher in Croatia and her new career as a cleaning lady in Manhattan in her 50s, to support her son during his studies. Nori Boni Zorovich talks about communism and escaping it, and about crossing the Atlantic in an 18-meter boat. The video recordings are not interviews, but defined, pre-scripted storytelling. The recordings and the spatial arrangement are designed to lead the audience from one storyteller to the next, gradually engaging with the individual stories but also becoming familiar with the community in which they took place.

Set-up options: a) The video installation is set up as five large-format video wall projections in a dark venue. The sounds of the five video channels should mix in the exhibition space. When one approaches one of the projections, the sound of that video will dominate, but the other four voices will still be present in the background. b) The video installation is set up on five screens in a bright or semi-dark room together with another work of art: five black-painted wooden panels (ca 4 x 3 m each) on which the condensed versions of the five biographies have been hand-written in chalk. Thus, the five-channel video installation and the five biography boards form a diptych. c) The video installation is exhibited on five screens or wall projections in a semi-dark room along with an installation of related objects/artifacts.

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