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R.E.P. Party

R.E.P. Party
/7
    • R.E.P. Party
    • Р. Е. П. партія
  • 2006
  • video, color, sound
  • 3min, 43sec
The artists of R.E.P. place their tent between tents of the various Ukrainian political parties and proceed to promote themselves. Their tent is white, as are their protective suits and the flags that they carry. Black and white are colors that were not part of the color spectrums used by the advertising agencies and technocrats of the political parties active during the Orange Revolution. R.E.P. conceives of its art as space for social communication. To create it, they quite deliberately employ the means of conventional politics and parody the other parties’ promises. Megaphones in hand, they deliver their manifestoes at a loud volume—which awakens curiosity and interest but indeed also rejection in passersby. Some of their slogans are paraphrases of existing ones, while others embody obscure demands or nonsense into which they nonetheless insert seriously meant agitation for themselves as artists: “We came to say that we exist, and the cultural establishment will have to deal with it.” This action took place on Independence Square in Kyiv in the midst of the parliamentary election campaigns. H.S.