Operation 9 is a body of work, which invites us to reflect upon issues that we tend to forget with time and consequently avoid in order to go on with our lives.
In a world oversaturated with all sorts of visuals, the space allocated to each scene is so short that we tend to digest things unconsciously and consume the given messages in a vegetative way.
In an automated society where systems become so firm, this piece tries to break through, in order to reveal some of these concerns and look for a change. The change that lies inside of us, that derives from the way we see things, we analyze them and react to them.
Built in two parts, Operation 9 drives us through a journey of assumptions and conclusions where our mind feels the urge to reveal the truth and solve the mystery. It proves how tied our vision is to our history and memory and how stuck we are with what we’ve been taught and shown everyday.
The media keeps us up to date and makes us believe that we are part of the process. With the huge amount of information delivered each second, we create an image for every situation that we use as a stereotype. We tend to give titles, to recognize things and link them to our previous experiences. But some incidents are one of a kind; they cannot be written or painted or even photographed. They are there, silent, by themselves. Those are the consequences, the aftermath.
We think that war ends when the artillery retreats and when the fighting ceases. But a different kind of war, a callous one, simmers when the real one stops. It starts in a discrete manner, away from the big picture that we read everyday in the newspapers or watch on the television; it takes place in a very intimate spot inside of us. It becomes so complicated that not even the media can reach its insight; and if it does it’s hard to identify with it. Instead we are driven to see what the system wants us to see. They decide for us and alter the truth in order to serve their agenda. This is what we consume; this is how we think we understand.
Besides its concern with global issues, operation 9 has a very personal face that unveils the intimate life and constant quiet struggle of a real hero. In a museum-like presentation, the everyday is exposed in a sincere approach that delivers the message without empathy yet far from being cold. We question what we are shown and we feel very close to it because of its simplicity and pureness, yet we feel how far we are and how timeless the process can be. This genuine experience leaves us in a state of confusion, between the images we’ve seen, the ones we’ve created and those unseen.
In this dialogue between the personal and the universal, our mind evaluates these images and takes a journey away from our history where only our senses can wander. A process that our memory will record and transform into a scar that stands too high to be reached yet close enough to be felt.