A series of advertisements is filmed through vertical black bars on a television set. The title of the video, written in hand with chalk on a school blackboard, clearly announces the work's artisanal appearance, in opposition to the formatting of televised commercials. The foreground obstructs our vision, like prison bars, as all kinds of categories of Yugoslav television commercials are played – such as an ad for Coca Cola, Maggi soup, Rexona deodorant or cut-price bedding. In spite of this difficulty, the advertisements are still effective, owing to the volume of the sound, as well as the globalisation of the brands and permanence of the products. Even though these were taken from a national channel in 1974, viewing them in 2009 remains relevant. The title “Sweet Violence” reveals the ambiguity of the spectator's view of these films. The commercial effectiveness of the television advertisement resides in the seduction and frustration exerted on its audience. Spectators, trapped in their domestic environment, are powerless in the face of the attraction exerted over them, since audiences are rarely capable of satisfying all of the desires aroused. The critique of the power of television is materialised by a very slight but very pertinent intervention. The poverty of means in the work's execution marks a distanciation from the hegemonic tools of seduction.

Patricia Maincent 

Translated by Yves Tixier and Anna Knight