HOSPITALITY project by Bogomir Doringer

First of all congratulations to Bogomir Doringer who recently graduated with the 'Hospitality' project. He got the Master's Degree in Film at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy (NFTA). Hospitality was showcased at IDFA,
24th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Please take some time for this project and read this interview with Bogomir by Marie-Paule Fritschy, www.sterschrift.nl.  interview


Take a look at the video portrait here, where Bogomir talks about this project and his work http://vimeo.com/28322265



Hospitality at IDFA

The psychological and physical state of military personnel changes drastically after returning from overseas missions such as the Gulf, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. The diseases that they ‘host’ have been identified by medical experts as variations of cancer. In the media, the ‘horrors’  they experienced are known as ‘Balkan Syndrome’ or ‘Gulf War Syndrome. Their health problems are linked to use of weapons containing depleted uranium (DU), as well as to the presence of invisible nanoparticles in the atmosphere which penetrate the victims' bodies.


This monumental and touching installation by the Serbian artist Bogomir Doringer combines interviews of those affected with a unique collection of biopsy samples, "hosted" by a ferrofluid* sculpture that transforms its shape before our eyes. This project examines the relationship between fiction and reality, and the questions the nature of "hospitality"**.
It examines people as uniformed "hosts", exposing body and mind to an aggressive transformation. 

* Ferrofluid is a liquid that becomes highly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field. It is used in medicine to detect cancer but also serves as a means to camouflage military objects. 


 ** The word ‘hospitality’ is derived from the Latin word hospes, which is formed from hostis, which originally meant ‘to have power’. The word host comes from the Old French word hoiste, which in turn is from the Latin word hostia, meaning ‘sacrificial victim’. In biology, it is a term for an animal or plant on or in which a parasite or commensal organism lives. 

www.bogomirdoringer.com