There's this quote by activist and punk rock musician Jello Biafra that I love. He says, "Don't hate the media. Be the media." I'm an artist. I like working with media and technology because A, I'm familiar with them and I like the power they hold. And B, I hate them and I'm terrified of the power they hold.
Postoji citat koji volim od aktiviste i pank rok muzičara Džela Bijafre. On kaže: „Ne mrzite medije. Budite mediji". Ja sam umetnik. Volim da radim sa medijima i tehnologijom jer, pod A, upoznat sam sa njima i sviđa mi se njihova moć i pod B, mrzim ih i bojim se moći koju imaju.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I remember watching, in 2003, an interview between Fox News host Tony Snow and then-US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. They were talking about the recent invasion of Iraq, and Rumsfeld is asked the question, "Well, we're hear about our body counts, but we never hear about theirs, why?" And Rumsfeld's answer is, "Well, we don't do body counts on other people." Right?
Sećam se da sam 2003. godine gledao intervju voditelja Foks Njuza, Tonija Snoua, sa tadašnjim američkim sekretarom odbrane Donaldom Ramsfeldom. Pričali su o nedavnoj invaziji Iraka i Ramsfeldu je postavljeno pitanje: „Čujemo o našem broju žrtava, ali nikada o njihovom. Zašto?" Ramsfeldov odgovor je: „Pa, ne brojimo žrtve drugih ljudi." Zar ne?
It's estimated that between 150,000 to one million Iraqis, civilians, have died as a result of the US-led invasion in 2003. That number is in stark contrast with the 4,486 US service members who died during that same window of time. I wanted to do more than just bring awareness to this terrifying number. I wanted to create a monument for the individual civilians who died as a result of the invasion.
Procenjeno je da je između 150 000 i jednog miliona Iračana, civila, poginulo kao rezultat invazije koju su predvodile SAD 2003. godine. Taj broj potpuno odudara u odnosu na 4 486 američkih vojnika koji su izgubili živote tokom istog perioda. Želeo sam da učinim više od samog podizanja svesti o ovom zastrašujućem broju. Želeo sam da stvorim spomenik za pojedinačne civile koji su poginuli zbog invazije.
Monuments to war, such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, are often enormous in scale. Very powerful and very one-sided. I wanted my monument to live in the world, and to circulate. I remember when I was a boy in school, my teacher assigned us this classic civics assignment where you take a sheet of paper and you write a member of your government. And we were told, if we wrote a really good letter, if we really thought about it, we would get back more than just a simple formed letter as a reply.
Spomenici ratu, kakav je „Vijetnamski spomenik" Maje Lin, često su ogromni. Veoma su moćni i jednostrani. Želeo sam da moj spomenik živi u svetu i cirkuliše. Sećam se kada sam bio dečak u školi, učitelj nam je zadao klasičan zadatak iz građanskog vaspitanja gde uzmete list papira i pišete članu svoje vlade. Rečeno nam je da, ako napišemo stvarno dobro pismo, ako stvarno razmislimo o tome, da ćemo dobiti kao odgovor više od jednostavno formulisanog pisma.
This is my "Notepad." What looks like an everyday, yellow legal tablet of paper is actually a monument to the individual Iraqi civilians that died as a result of the US invasion. "Notepad" is an act of protest and an act of commemoration disguised as an everyday tablet of paper. The lines of the paper, when magnified, are revealed to be micro-printed text that contains the details, the names, the dates and locations of individual Iraqi civilians that died.
Ovo je moja "Beležnica". Ono što izgleda kao uobičajeni, žuti tabak papira u stvari je spomenik pojedinačnim iračkim civilima koji su izgubili živote zbog američke invazije. „Beležnica" je čin protesta i čin komemoracije prerušen u uobičajeni tabak papira. Linije papira, kada se uvećaju, otkrivaju da su tekst u mikroštampi koji sadrži detalje, imena, datume i lokacije pojedinačnih iračkih civila koji su poginuli.
So, for the last 5 years, I've been taking pads of this paper, tons of this stuff, and smuggling it into the stationery supplies of the United States and the Coalition governments.
Tako sam proteklih 5 godina uzimao ove blokove, na tone, i krijumčario ih u kancelarijske zalihe vlada Sjedinjenih Država i Koalicije.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
I don't have to tell you guys this is not the place to discuss how I did that.
Ne moram da vam kažem da ovo nije mesto
(Laughter)
za diskusiju o tome kako sam to radio.
(Smeh)
But also, I've been meeting one-on-one with members and former members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, who assisted in the invasion.
Takođe sam se sretao jedan na jedan sa članovima i bivšim članovima tzv. „Koalicije voljnih" koja je pomagala pri invaziji.
And so, whenever I can, I meet with one of them, and I share the project with them. And last summer, I had the chance to meet with former United States Attorney General and Torture Memo author, Alberto Gonzales.
Tako, kada god mogu, sretnem se sa nekim od njih i podelim svoj projekat sa njima. Prošlog leta, imao sam prilike da sretnem bivšeg američkog državnog tužioca
(Video) Matt Kenyon: May I give this to you?
i autora „Memoranduma o mučenju", Alberta Gonzalesa.
This is a special legal tablet. It's actually part of an ongoing art project.
(Video) Kenjon Martin: Mogu li da Vam dam ovo? Ovo je posebna sveska za beleške. U stvari je deo projekta u toku.
Alberto Gonzalez: This is a special legal pad?
Alberto Gonzales: Ovo je posebna sveska za beleške?
MK: Yes. You won't believe me, but it's in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art; I'm an artist.
MK: Da. Nećete mi verovati, ali je u kolekciji Muzeja moderne umetnosti; ja sam umetnik.
MK: And all of the lines of the paper are actually --
AG: Okej.
MK: Sve ove linije papira su u stvari -
AG: Are they going to disappear?
AG: Da li će nestati?
MK: No, they're micro-printed text that contains the names of individual Iraqi civilians who have died since the invasion of Iraq.
MK: Ne, one su tekst u mikroštampi koji sadrži imena pojedinačnih iračkih civila koji su izgubili živote od početka invazije na Irak.
AG: Yeah. OK.
AG: Da. Okej.
AG: Thank you. MK: Thank you.
AG: Hvala vam. MK: Hvala vam.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
The way he says "thank you" really creeps me out.
Način na koji kaže „Hvala vam" me stvarno plaši.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
OK, so I'd like each of you to look under your chairs. There's an envelope. And please open it. The paper you're holding in your hand contains the details of Iraqi civilians that died as result of the invasion. I'd like you to use this paper and write a member of government. You can help to smuggle this civilian body count into government archives. Because every letter that's sent in to the government, and this is all across the world, of course -- every letter that is sent in is archived, filed and recorded. Together, we can put this in the mailboxes and under the noses of people in power. Everything that's sent in eventually becomes part of the permanent archive of our government, our shared historical record.
Okej, želeo bih da svako od vas pogleda ispod svoje stolice. Tamo je koverta i molim vas da je otvorite. Papir koji držite u ruci sadrži detalje o iračkim civilima koji su izgubili živote zbog invazije. Želeo bih da iskoristite ovaj papir i pišete članu vlade. Možete pomoći u krijumčarenju broja civilnih žrtava u arhive vlade jer je svako pismo koje je poslato vladi - a ovo je tako i širom sveta, naravno - svako pismo koje je poslato se arhivira, knjiži i zavodi. Zajedno možemo ovo staviti u poštanske sandučiće i ispred nosa ljudima koji su na vlasti. Sve što je poslato na kraju postaje deo trajne arhive naše vlade, naš zajednički istorijski zapis.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Tom Rielly: So, tell me Matt, how did this idea come into your head, of "Notepad"?
Tom Rajli: Reci mi, Met, kako ti je sinula ideja o Beležnici?
Matt Kenyon: I'd just finished a project that dealt with the US Coalition side of the war and it was a black armband that was called the "Improvised Empathetic Device" which accumulated, in real time, the names, ranks, cause of death and location of US service members who had died overseas, and each time the Department of Defense or CENTCOM released their data, it would stab me in the arm. And so, I became aware that there was a spectacle associated with our own people who were dying overseas, but a disproportionate amount of casualties were the civilian casualties.
Met Kenjon: Upravo sam završio projekat koji se bavio stranom rata američke Koalicije i bila je to crna traka za ruku koja se zvala „improvizovani uređaj za empatiju" koji je akumulirao tokom vremena imena, činove, uzroke smrti i mesto američkih vojnika koji su poginuli van zemlje, a svakoga puta kada bi Ministarstvo odbrane ili CENTCOM objavili podatke, ubolo bi me u ruku. Tako, postao sam svestan da postoji spektakl povezan sa našim ljudima koji poginu van zemlje, ali neproporcionalni broj žrtava bile su građanske žrtve.
TR: Thank you so much.
TR: Hvala ti.
MK: Thank you.
MK: Hvala vama.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)