I Am Addressing You Man to Man, 2003

(Stations on the road to democracy)

Installation

The basic characteristic of democratic society is that, by the necessity if its structure, the place of Power is empty. (Claude Lefort) Performing some kind of an intimate electoral campaign, during the year 2003, D.M. drives along the local roads of Istrian peninsula (northern Adriatic) stopping at the bus-stops and leaving a poster-leaflet with his photo-portrait and the message "I AM ADDRESSING YOU MAN TO MAN" in each bus-stop shelter, adding here and there a small bowl with candies. Thus, the electoral territory is that of Istria, and 100 bus shelters the places of political agitation. Just like the image of D.M. on the leaflet, these little houses belong to another, past time and the document contributing to the development of democracy is also a document of the existence of these little lonely buildings. Each shelter has its own idiosyncrasies that make it different from all the others (shape, building method and materials, level of neglect, the landscape around it) and each shelters one holy, well, sometimes not so holy, principle of democracy.