cacak
cacak
 
The Rumor (Or How Samantha Fox Helped Cacak Reach Fame)
Mixed media installation, 2007
Plynth 150 x 150 x 55 cm, A4 text on stand, in front of the cultural center, Cacak
2 enlarged contact-sheets, 120 x 150 cm, Galerija Nadezda Petrovic, Cacak. Photos Darko Lasancic
24. Nadezda Petrovic Memorial, Cacak/SRB, 2007



In early April 2007, the Dani Estrade Awards took place at in Cacak, Serbia. It consisted of two evenings of concerts organized by Pink TV, the most watched Serbian broadcaster known for Turbofolk and cheap entertainment: the first evening, on April 6, gathered Serbian pop bands with Boney M performing the closing gig. The next evening saw a line-up of Turbofolk bands combined with Samantha Fox.

According to many newspapers, websites and blogs, there had been a project to erect a statue to former pin-up and singer Samantha Fox in Cacak after she agreed to perform at Dani Estrade. This was obviously following a trend in erecting monuments to international entertainers in ex-Yugoslavia, which started with Bruce Lee in Mostar. Where the idea of the Samantha Fox monument originated proved impossible to figure out, yet it propagated over the world: news on the Samantha Fox monument were found over the internet in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian...

Nevertheless, the crowd apparently came more for Fox's breasts than for her music, which upset her. After the concert, she didn't appear at a dinner given in her honour by politician Velimir Ilic and the monument project was dropped.

A basic investigation in Cacak showed that the story reported over the internet wasn't quite accurate. According to Fox's body-guard in Cacak, things were quite different: the audience had apparently come for the Turbofolk programme and most people left before Fox started performing - only about 50 people stayed. That's what she was upset about and, after the concert, took a shower and left. But looking at the images taken by diverse photographers that night, it looks like more than 50 people attended ...  So, where's the truth ?

We have no clue about where the rumor came from and what purpose it was to serve. Was it a digression on what made the British page-three girl famous ? An attempt at discrediting Velimir Ilic ? A sly way of capturing Samantha Fox's fame for Cacak's benefit ? A desire to be in line with Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone and Johnny Weissmuller ? A private joke turned public on the internet ? Questions remain, speculation continues ...

Yet instead of dismissing the rumor as unreliable and trivial, we should take it seriously as a symtom of our times, and honour it accordingly. This monument, to be completed by your imagination, is to celebrate the rumor that potentially could make any of us famous. 

Text posted next to the plynth. 

contact sheet 1
contact sheet 2