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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.
