ОДНА ОСТАНОВКА

IRWIN: Dusan Mandic, Miran Mohar, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek, Borut Vogelnik

Ljubljana

NSK Garda, Tbilisi

WAS IST KUNST

NSK Garda Tbilisi was a part of the ongoing project by group Irwin that started in 1998 with an installation in Tirana (NSK Guard Tirana) and was later followed by identical realizations in Prague, Zagreb, Rome, Cetinje, Graz, Kyoto, Pristhina, Biskek and Sarajevo.

All of the projects were organized through the cooperation between local art institutions and army headquarters.

Basic action is quite simple: 4 soldiers are guarding the NSK flag, they have Malevic suprematistic crosses on the arm bands and they're standing still for about one hour.
The location is important; it has to be a public place, square, or in front of some public institution. This depends from case to case.

Formally we see this project as some sort of tableau vivant of the real army wearing our and Malevich cross - art society and army society are social structures that are usually on the opposite ends of the social spectrum and very rarely mix. As an art state NSK is in
fact in some sort of parasitic relation with other, normal states and in this project this
is made visible.

Irwin together with other NSK art groups created a NSK State in Time as the reaction
to the change of political system and rise of nationalisms in Eastern Europe in the beginning
of the 90s. There are already more than 3000 NSK citizens from many different countries
bearing NSK passports. See also the enclosed text entitled State in Time written in 1992.
It is also possible to find more on NSK on www.nskstate.com

In Tbilisi we wrote with the bodies of 100 soldiers the following text:
WAS IST KUNST using the space on the hippodrome.
This is the title of our main series of works (which transformed in mid 90ies to Irwin
icons) and one of the fundamental questions in our artistic practice and also in general.
As a public appearance than we could make than posters placed in the city.
All the action was taped and transformed to a video film