"75 wishes" project
/after The Fisherman and the Goldfish/
CD-ROM and Multimedia Screening Project
 
ventsislav zankov

"75 wishes"  on

 

 

The Goldfish

 

This is not a questionnaire, nor is it an un/presentable excerpt from fishy sociological research. This is no joke, either, and it’s not a remix of some story about some kind of fisherman and his goldfish.

If the goldfish could be called a project, its accomplishment began as soon as the idea emerged, thanks to the fact that I had my camera with me…then. That’s when I asked the first person I knew – Orlin, who was working at “KEVA” (Bulgarian abbreviation for Club for the Aesthetic Training of the Artist) at the time – what his three wishes were. That’s how it all started. Towards the end of November, 2000.

 

The fact that the year 2001 was approaching must have made most of the people think more about my question, as they answered with unexpected seriousness…

As if the voiced wishes could really come true, and I was the one who would negotiate that…But the wishes themselves… I thought most of us yearn for pretty much the same things that make life worth living.  

 

I don’t know why I called this the goldfish and based it on the story we all know and love. It seemed stupid to ask people “what are your personal goals and expectations for the New Millennium?” And the fish as a symbol (not to mention gold) appears to be embedded in our collective unconscious, setting hidden devices into motion. It is easy, a lot easier now, and possible, for thoughts and desires from the twilight zone to drift up to the surface (of our conscience…) well, sometimes, anyway…And with a varying success rate, depending on how skillful the fisherman is. But let’s not forget that everyone is their own fisherman, and that the moral comes after the story.

VZ 

 

 

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