Seduced by Love
Memefest Friendly Competition '11 - Love : Conflict : Imagination
The project was made for the socially responsive communication & art festival Memefest, festival that nurtures and rewards theory, practice and research of communication that works towards a more equal society. The work was awarded with "Memefest Good Communication work recognition".
Festival outlines:
Love is power - Power is conflict - Love is conflict - What is the relationship between love and power?
What is the relationship between power and conflict? what is the relationship between love and conflict?
I'm reflecting the idea – the starting point – of this project. My opinion is that if love gives you strength and strength leads to conflict, it is not love at all. If, however, those who have the power take advantage of love in order to achieve their goals, they cause the conflict. Therefore the conflict is not in love itself, but in its misuse. In this way, for example, we are exploited by the consumption, resting on the commercialism. It gives us comfort, fame, profit, and more, which indirectly promises us love. In many cases we are not even aware
of this process nor are we aware of our responsibility in it. Therefore I do not blame the corporations; the responsibility is in us. It is us who have to resist mass commercialism.
This awareness is what I wanted to stress with my work. My idea was to make the steps in the form of hearts which, if followed, lead to a certain point (outflows on the road, the pile of trash, holes ...). The end of this trace is disappointment, since we are of course expecting more. In this way I literally wanted to show how the misuse of love brings conflict. It is likely that people won’t understand the message, but after all I just wanted to see if they could be lead or not and to force them to think about it.
As communication approach I used public art installation, which "works" only when it is placed in the appropriate environment and acts in cooperation with people. The best way is of course on the streets in the cities. Manufacturing labels in the form of hearts, posted on the street, illustrate human steps which lead us around the bend (or any other obstacle which distorts the view), to a certain unexpected goal (outflows on the road). Symbols, hearts represent love and promise us something nice and positive and the end itself in this context constitutes a point of disappointment.
What is the relationship between power and conflict? what is the relationship between love and conflict?
I'm reflecting the idea – the starting point – of this project. My opinion is that if love gives you strength and strength leads to conflict, it is not love at all. If, however, those who have the power take advantage of love in order to achieve their goals, they cause the conflict. Therefore the conflict is not in love itself, but in its misuse. In this way, for example, we are exploited by the consumption, resting on the commercialism. It gives us comfort, fame, profit, and more, which indirectly promises us love. In many cases we are not even aware
of this process nor are we aware of our responsibility in it. Therefore I do not blame the corporations; the responsibility is in us. It is us who have to resist mass commercialism.
This awareness is what I wanted to stress with my work. My idea was to make the steps in the form of hearts which, if followed, lead to a certain point (outflows on the road, the pile of trash, holes ...). The end of this trace is disappointment, since we are of course expecting more. In this way I literally wanted to show how the misuse of love brings conflict. It is likely that people won’t understand the message, but after all I just wanted to see if they could be lead or not and to force them to think about it.
As communication approach I used public art installation, which "works" only when it is placed in the appropriate environment and acts in cooperation with people. The best way is of course on the streets in the cities. Manufacturing labels in the form of hearts, posted on the street, illustrate human steps which lead us around the bend (or any other obstacle which distorts the view), to a certain unexpected goal (outflows on the road). Symbols, hearts represent love and promise us something nice and positive and the end itself in this context constitutes a point of disappointment.
