Vesna Bukovec

The Price of a Spectacle

Year: 2008
Duration: 00:22:20

This video is a single screen version of the 2-channel video installation. The Price of a Spectacle presented at the international exhibition “Necessary Discourse on Hysteria” in Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec / The Gallery of Fine Arts Slovenj Gradec in Slovenia in 2008.

While researching the facts and circumstances of the Beijing Olympics on the Internet, I became aware of the problem of the demolition of poor neighborhoods. This situation was rarely mentioned in Slovene media. These ancient residential districts called Hutongs were in the way of new splashing architectural wonders such as Bird’s Nest Stadium or the Water Cube. China invested 33 million Euros in the construction of new Olympic venues and the beautification of the city, thus making the 2008 games the most expensive ones ever. But what was the real price paid by poor citizens? One-and-a-half-million residents of Hutongs were brutally evicted from their homes and left homeless.