Vladimir Todorović, World Wide Open, performance, 2004.
Virtuality is often considered as some kind of a zombie of reality, as a reality devoid of essence, or as a less actual reality. The flaw of such assessment is that the state of reality is too vague to be set as an absolute reference. The experience is determined by our perception and by the context whose alteration relativizes every reality thus indicating that the event horizon is generated by (cognitive) convention. Every reality is a virtuality of some other reality.
In his recent works (One And Five Or Six Chairs, Reflections, World Wide Open), Vladimir Todorović initiates formally diverse events that problematize the notion of the edge between the real and the virtual. In World Wide Open, he engages in a five day one-on-one paintball tournament against individuals from the audience, with the idea to integrate the virtual world of gaming and the various real worlds that intertwine within the gallery space.
Before going to the opening, I check my equipment once again. Recoilless small-calliber submachine gun Ingram MAC 7 with shredding bullets is a good choice for this occasion (I earlier used Heckler-Koch MP5 with dum-dum). Just in case, I wrap myself in Sentex with redundant detonators that can be triggered mechanically, by voice or biometrically. The explosive, the gun and the ammo are real.
Vladimir Todorović, World Wide Open, exhibition catalogue, Dom omladine Gallery, Belgrade, 2004.