On Milk and People

Kristina Leko, 2001/03
192‘ (139'30' + 52'30'') DV
Eleven-channel video installation expanded with objects (original set up, edition 1 + 1) / Two-channel video installation expanded with objects (edition 2 + 1) / Single-channel video (AP)

No essential dialogue; interview-tape in Croatian and Hungarian with English subtitles


Ten short documentaries are similarly structured, 13-14 minutes long, with the screen often split into four moving images. Each film documents the course of an entire day on a family farm, from early morning milking to the last milking in the evening. The ten films give an insight into the daily routine of small family farms which make their living from the dairy production, five in Croatia and five in Hungary. The films were edited according to the rule that every action/task/process that took place that day had to be documented with at least one second in the final version. The rule was established to show how dynamic a day on a farm is and how much movement is involved. Interviews: The fifty-two-minute video is a collage of farmers' statements about their everyday life, their lives and problems, and gives an insight into the economics and politics of farming. The mixture of statements from Hungarian and Croatian farmers is created in such a way that the position of small farmers in the two post-socialist societies can be compared. We can observe that they share the same problems, such as difficult financial situation, non-transparent subsidy system, irregular payments, unfriendly and corrupt bureaucracy, and that they are exploited and blackmailed by the authorities in a similar way. In addition to a socio-political and historical analysis of the two somewhat similar post-socialist societies, this series of films also has an ethnographic and anthropological aspect.

Video communication project is a term that Leko coined for her first participatory video project in Gdansk, Poland, and has since used for her participatory and/or activist video projects. It refers to the fact that the medium of video is used to create an exchange between project participants, but also to communicate engaging content to the audience. The term was first published in her artist statement for the project Sarajevo International, 2001.

Notes on the installation: The original setup of the project at the Institute of Contemporary Art Dunaujvaros, Hungary, was a ten-channel video installation expanded by ten object installations created and set up by the farmers themselves, who had previously selected their household objects. In other words, the ten short documentaries were shown within the farmers' object installations. The interview video was shown in another room of the gallery. Later, the project was exhibited several times in the form of a two-channel video installation: ten short documentaries were shown as one video channel, while On Milk and People, Interviews, was shown as the second video channel. This installation could be expanded to include several original objects. The video can also be shown in its full length as a single-channel installation in a black box.


List of films:

Film No. 1/10, in collaboration with the Kolesarić family, Zoljani, Croatia, 14'10''
Film No. 2/10, in collaboration with the Torma Mihaly family, Dunaujvaros, Hungary, 13'
Film No. 3/10, in collaboration with the Torma Janos family, Nagyvenyim, Hungary, 14'15''
Film No. 4/10, in collaboration with the Beregzsazsi family, Kiszentmiklos, Hungary, 13'45''
Film No. 5/10, in collaboration with the Falusi family, Nagyvenyim, Hungary, 13'10''
Film No. 6/10, in collaboration with the Fülöp family, Elloszalas, Hungary, 13'45''
Film No. 7/10, in collaboration with the Zvirotić family, Donja Bebrina, Croatia, 15'30''
Film No. 8/10, in collaboration with the Samardžija family, Ruščica, Croatia, 13'55''
Film No. 9/10, in collaboration with the Ostojčić family, Prnjavor, Croatia, 4'50''
Film No. 10/10, in collaboration with the Blaževac family, Donja Bebrina, Croatia, 13'20''
On Milk and People, Interviews, 52'30''

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