Naturally, I have known for a long time about the concepts and strategies of the group IRWIN and I consider IRWIN as a classic of the 1990-is. I met them for the first time in Moscow in 1992 during the project "NSK Embassy", though they probably do not remember it. At that time I was already visiting Moscow almost as a guest. So my local friends gave me the task to clarify for them what the Balkans are all about, explanations meant to go along with the action of the Ljubljana artists. The Moscow point of view was seeing Slovenia and Bulgaria as nearly identical countries, at least at that time. With a touch of excuse in my voice, I was responding that for us in Sofia, Ljubljana is the West, with all possible symbolic connotations of this geographical location.

However, it was then that I learned about and was impressed by the idea for the "State in Time" which somehow correspond with my own notion for an actual cultural situation. I was impressed by the group existence of the "artist" IRWIN as well, no matter how "he himself" is defining this existence - that is so atypical for the location, the time and the field of activity he exists in. I think that the collective production of artefacts, which the IRWIN group is famous for, from painting to discussions, is like a stigmata for our times, a painful wound, as well as a heavenly sign at the same time and in a very natural way.

IRWIN seems to function successfully as a collective mind and a corporate producer, a discussion club and public opinion, a cultural context, intellectual refuge, ethical formula. IRWIN is using (deriving use value from) both East and West by being a borderline model which is relevant precisely now, rather then being a politically, ideologically and historically transient phenomenon. The symbolic NSK embassies in various countries, as well as the even more symbolic NSK passport (desired by the entire art world) which lists on its last page "The Five Basic Principles of Friendship" signifies power in the sense of Faucault. At the same time the artistic actions of IRWIN are capable of redefining it over and over again. When in December 1998 I saw the IRWIN performance in Tirana with the real
Albanian soldiers in fatigues standing guard for the NSK flag against the background of an actual political demonstration on the streets of the city, I saw the principles of montage in action. It broke up the continuity of the actual street event much in the way it had been used by the Soviet movie directors of the 20-is. For the participants in the "Permanent Instability - Onufri'98" the show itself was more real than what was happening on the streets, although we all knew from our own individual experience what was all this about. By raising the NSK flag high on Albanian territory within the space referred to as "contemporary art" faster then any political decision might have done.

I recall that at the time my art historical background played a joke on me. A quotation from William Turner that I used to hear quite often in class just popped in my mind. It goes something like this: "I did not paint in order to make something comprehensible, I rather wanted to show what does a thing look like"

translated by Luchezar Boyadjiev