Exports Balthazar – the children's favorite

Exports Balthazar – the children's favourite

the Professor spoke out for peace and tolerance

Many are there who remember Professor Balthazar from childhood tevetittande. The help of the professor with the help of his magical machine had the solution to all possible problems. The children's program, which was filmed between 1968 and 1979, was a great cultural export from the Zagreb Animation School in the socialist Yugoslavia, and was seen by children all over the world.

Behzad Khosravi Noori is deleted in its art project from the mind of the films during his childhood in Iran in the 80's. He is fascinated over how the recollection of this kind binds together people from different cultures. Instead of the culturally-specific his interest for the fragment where it occurs, the consistency, for that which is common rather than what separates people.

the Project is also an attempt to link a personal memory with large events.

at the same time with that Professor Balthazar was spread in a world marked by the cold war concluded, several countries together in the non-aligned movement, which was initiated by Yugoslavia's leader Tito together with, among others, India's prime minister Nehru, and Nasser in Egypt. You wanted to find a third way in the war between the superpowers, but also worked with the question of the development prospects of third world countries. It imposed a new economic order that would benefit the poor avkoloniserade nations.

A film in the exhibition, signs of the non-aligned movement's history in the form of interviews and old film clips where among other things you get to see how the leaders from the various member states are planting trees in a park in Belgrade, in order to consolidate the formation of the organization in 1961.

another film tells the story of the development of animated films in Yugoslavia, and Zagreb Animation School. During the liberation from the Soviet union: propagandafilm in Disneystil against Stalin. A Man later came forward to a simpler and less labor intensive animation technique that came to be the norm with influences from advertising and art from the west.

the Idea for the Professor Balthazar came out of the wishes of film for children that were not violent and which campaigned for peaceful coexistence and tolerance. The thing that strikes me when I look at the four sections shown are also advocates of imagination and individualism. Not just by the amazing imagery, but also by focusing on a little bit of odd individuals, which with professor Balthazars help find a path in life. Like the artist nobody cares about, but who, with the assistance of the professor become famous and accepted.

Or, the invisible citizen that no one notices until one day he disappears from the city. He is so missing that one decides to erect a monument over him, but because nobody will remember how he looks it just becomes a socket. This monument has Behzad Khosravi Noori recreated in the exhibition space in the form of a play sculpture that you can climb on and ride the slide out.

the Monument to the invisible citizen can be seen as a tribute to the individual in the mass, which does not make so much noise, but which, nevertheless, deserve a full life. Behzad Khosravi Noori is pointing to a connection between the Professor Balthazar and the values that were spread by the non-aligned movement. His hypothesis about how a personal memory can be interleaved in a larger narrative is poetically portrayed.

For the viewer, it becomes an eye-opener even for contemporary cultural expression. By remembering together with the artist we catch sight of ourselves in a larger context.

Behzad Khosravi Noori

Professor Balthazar and the invisible citizen

and with december 2