The Happy Prince – Plovdiv is being created especially for the Center for Contemporary Art in Plovdiv and it uses creatively the ancient bath’s authentic architecture.
In his installation Dejan Kaludjerovic tells Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Happy Prince”. All the 3478 words of the text have been written on the uneven walls in an old fashioned, historical font.
The viewer perceives the artwork as an integral part of the ancient architecture – as if it had been there since ages. But on the background a few, brightly shining, key words from the text stand out – “selfishness”, “mud”, “fear”, “power”, “rich”, “corporation”.
Thus the artist makes a complex and critical comment on the contemporary social and economical reality, in which all of us live. It is a fairy-tale, which tells the story of the unjust realities of the society in the 19th century, related to the not more just realities of the 21st century.