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Martin Bricelj: Fake up, urban media action, digital prints, 2003

Martin Bricelj - multimedia artist, graphic designer, VJ, copy-fighter, illustrator and typographer.
Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts, department of Visual Communication, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and at Ecole Superieure d'Arts Graphiques-Penninghen/ Academie Julian in Paris.
He is working as an art director at Maska, journal for performing arts. His design includes works for many festivals (Break21-international festival of young artists, Magdalena-festival of visual communication, Exodos-festival of contemporary performing arts, Gibanica/Moving cake-1st Slovene Dance festival, SpringFestival, …), designs for the club scene (fliers, posters, stickers) and many contemporary artists.
As a representative of the eclectic generation he likes to shift through various graphic styles and languages by using different media, but is always staying faithfull to the clear expression of the basic idea.
As a founder of multimedia collective Code.Ep, he is organising different audio-visual events in Ljubljana and elsewhere, where he might be active as event manager, DJ, VJ or a kind Flier Distributor.
With the works in the field of typography, illustration, animation, comics and video, he has been exibiting and participating in many exhibitions and workshop projects in Slovenia, as well as in Athens, Barcelona, Bratislava, Budapest, China, London, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, Sarajevo, Sydney, Vienna.
He is co-founder of CODE.SIGN, studio for Visual Communication, where he is active as a creative and art director.

Contact information:
martin@codeep.org


The Fake up project by Martin Bricelj and collaborators represents a reaction to the filthy media reconstructions of reality. With clearly set goals (a powerful reaction of the media and the public) it warns about the dangers of manipulating with reality and covering up the consequences. Fake up is a multidisciplinary project, presented as the CityLight poster exhibition, with eight portraits of illusionary victims of biochemical attacks, placed all around the streets of Ljubljana, between October and November, 2003. The whole story was imaginary, devised and presented to the public through various media (print, television, radio, banners, internet). They gained the media attention with the street exhibition Faces of Fear, organized by a newly opened office in Ljubljana, Avbia - Association of Victims of Biochemical Attacks. The aim was to produce the "truest" possible story, the Avbia internet site (www.avbia.org) and mailing lists were launched, the signing of petitions was organized; the fictional protagonists of the organization could be reached at a phone number in New York, where the organization's headquarters was placed.
The exhibition presents four digital prints, belonging to the Faces of Fear poster series. Deformed faces are a warning about the existence of the other, the unprivileged, something that we are not, but can easily become, if we refuse to take action. At the same time they are refreshing, alternative representations, in contrast with the numerous idealistic images, seducing us every day. The basic medium of the action (public communication through posters) appropriates the advertising methods of creating artificial perfection, used by cosmetic, textile, car industries etc. Fake up swept away the media, just like the media sweep away the public, but this time the garbage was on their own doorstep.

Nina Kodrič