Zoran Petrovski
The question of balance
The question of balance: Balancing between the balkanisation and ‘’debalkanisation’’ tendencies within the complex and braided reality of the region, is a task that should be surmounted in finest manner by every visitor and player deciding to be part of the virtual space of the Balkan Mall – computer video game that is in the midst of the Personal Cinema project entitled as The making of Balkan wars: The game.
Compared with the commercial productions of epic and strategic nature, to maintain the balance in the Balkan Mall is not a factor of winning over the enemies, but rather a project offering greater possibilities for reflection and interactive movement, through spaces and different layers of the harsh, but also rich political and cultural topography of the peninsula-the way we know it and it has been avowed in the works of the fifty artists being insofar part of this project. The symbolical meaning of the balance within this metaphorical narrative serves as a precondition for a dialogue and provides space for an open and historically unburdened view to the Balkan reality.
The reasons why Personal Cinema are placing their project within the frames of the video game, in the genre known as the epic strategy, can be traced down to the ironic playground where the overlaps occur, between the real Balkan context and the tribal mythic content typical for commercial production of video games of this kind. The irony is, above all, in the critical tone of the project being strikingly directed towards the unavoidable media representation where manipulation is overwhelming and the misuse of major stereotypes for picturing the region is such that often resembles exactly to the epic strategic games.
At the same time, what the creators undoubtedly want to announce through the ‘’Balkan Wars: The game’’, is that the use of democratic potential in the hands of the new information media such as the internet and many other interactive communication tools, may be the chance for de-fragmentation of an adamant shell created by the inherited animosities and misunderstandings. According to this belief, Personal Cinema collective project is a frame for replacement, as Popi Diamantakou states of ideologically charged elements of mythological constructions with a social change symbolized by the language of that same technology that has reproduced them. It is a perspective that many of us would like to see.
