BULL.MILETIC is the name of the collaborative team of Synne BULL born in Oslo, Norway and Dragan MILETIC born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, founded in San Francisco in 2000. BULL received her MFA and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California and she studied philosophy and history of theatre at University of Oslo, Norway. MILETIC received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California and his BFA form Academy of Fine Arts, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.

BULL.MILETIC exhibited their video installations internationally at venues including the Henie Onstad kunstsenter, Bœrum, Norway, Whitney Museum of American Art's Artport, New York, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Victorian Arts Center, Melbourne, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, MoCA, Los Angeles, Transmediale, Berlin, Germany, and IMPAKT, Utrecht, The Netherlands. A catalog of their artistic ouvre was published by Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin in 2004.

BULL.MILETIC were the recipients of the BAVC Video Maker Award in 2003, and have received professional grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Norwegian Cultural Council, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Office for Contemporary Art Norway and Stockholm Cultural Council among others. They were artists in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California in 2003 and at Künstlerhause Bethanien Berlin in 2004. Most recently, Bull.Miletic recieved the CEC 2005 Visual and Media ArtsLink Projects Award for the production of a new video piece in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade.

"Circumspectly and apparently unemotionally, Bull.Miletic press ahead with gathering their clues, primarily on urban battlefields and playgrounds. As all of their works impressively show, their thoughts circle around the vain desire to record the world in its entirety, and accordingly, their videos are sensual studies of the ambivalences of the aggregate and the detail, of slowness and acceleration, and of overview and disorientation. In every new work, Bull.Miletic also explore the stylistic possibilities of the medium of video. The borders of perception are thereby not to be broken open or rashly crossed, but expanded conscientiously and with precision."

Excerpt from "By the way: On the installations Wiegenlied and Übergang" by Boris von Brauchitsch. Taken from the catalog BULL.MILETIC:SLOW SEEING, published by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, 2004. All rights reserved.

Filmography/Awards Info:

1. The Island of Pelicans 2003 DVD, 20 min, loop

remark: In "The Island of Pelicans" Installation, esoteric image-fragments of the former federal penitentiary on the Island of Alcatraz is weaved together with the architectural structure of two perfectly square video monitors aligned side-by-side on the floor. The video monitors resemble a panoramic image divided it into two cells. This allows for the experience of an extended time difference shaped by the alternation of synchronized and unsynchronized visuals. The sound in the installation is influenced by the Norwegian artist Leif Inge's stretch of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony. Especially the 5th movement inspired the project and is used as a reoccurring theme throughout the soundtrack in the installation. The extended time represented in "9 Beet Stretch" reflects the many epochs that helped shape the peculiarities of the island. Cultivated as a symbol of the most horrific prison one could ever think of, this isolated rock remains a powerful metaphor of the prison as the place where one does time, where time is strictly measured, where time is punishment.

2. Whir 2002 DVD, 12 min, loop

remark: WHIR; Noun: 1.event: Sound of something in rapid motion. Examples: "Whir of a bird's wings", "The whir of the propellers" Verb: 1. perception: Make a soft swishing sound, as of a motor working or wings flapping. Synonyms: whirr, whirring, birr

WHIR started with our interest in the space between experience and imagination, searching for alternatives to conventional framing and to the consumption of images that influence our vision of the world. The city is no longer a clearly localizable spatial unit, but has transformed itself into an "urban field", a collection of activities instead of a material structure. It is in a state of continuous decomposition, but is also continually reorganizing and rearranging itself, expanding and shrinking. An encounter with the extraordinary, which is at the core of our downtown life, travels through this video as an undercurrent – and is transferred to the viewer as an experience for the senses.

3. You Are Here 2001 DVD, 27 min, loop

remark: “You Are Here” consists of 2 parts. The first part shows the Death Valley's “Racetrack” lake-bed with the mysterious moving rocks and their carved trails. The video is shot using a radio controlled robotic device with a mini DV camera mounted on it. The perspective is of an average boulder on the playa. The second part is comprised of 5 animated text tableaux. The text appears letter-by-letter, similarly to typing on computer. The font type [SynneScriptTM] is a copyright of the artists and was especially designed for the piece.

4. Heaven Can Wait 2001 DVD, 15 min, loop

remark: Panoramic video documentations taken from world’s revolving restaurants will feature in this installation. The visuals in this trailer depict 4 of them.

"Heaven Can Wait" is our life long project, started in 2000. By documenting the views from the world's revolving restaurants, we frame the location of its existence in time and space. By aligning the revolving locations side by side on monitors in the installation, the viewer is able to observe the ultimate 360-degree global panorama of the revolving worldviews.

5. Gymnopedies 2001 DVD, 8.41 min, loop

remark: The well-known musical triptych "3 Gymnopedies" by Eric Satie is used as the backdrop for the American rodeo. This old cowboy ritual lives on in the form of commercialized competitions nationwide, which attract larger audience with every coming season. In weaving the slow motion imagery with the meditative piano music, the rodeo becomes a gracious dance with the monumental characters. Juxtaposing brutality with elegance, the 3 subtle musical variations highlight 3 different categories within the competition. The stage is set for a "cowboys’ ballet" performance framed in the old fashion Western trade cards design.






Statement about our work and process

We are interested the question of how reality is perceived through different media. By investigating the nuances between presentation and representation, we want to temporarily displace the viewer and facilitate his or her awareness of the interplay of medium and subject. Our ideas often involve time-based work, using video for multiple channel installations or as single channel video. A number of our projects are Internet based and one of our installations features a 16mm film projection.

In the course of our artistic practice we respond to our immediate surroundings. For us, employing senses is about acquiring knowledge and comprehending space. Through the sensatory perceptual nature we recognize objects and situations in every day life as dramatized and expressive. In the space between experience and imagination we see the ordinary as both the most oppressive and most transformative space.

Our work engages various analog and electronic imaging technologies yet it is not reductively or simply about the technology. Rather it is the technological apparatus (photographic, cinematic, web or video camera) that yields the extraordinariness we respond to. In our curious observations of daily life we try to keep focus and develop awareness for valuable moments in the space we inhabit. We then try to capture these moments in the most appropriate form in order to translate them to a viewer as an experience for the senses.

The dream world often referenced or experienced in our work, derive from both conscious and unconscious encounters. In our creative exploration of reality, the dreaming and waking states of life are considered equally important. That which is of unnoticed importance, not understood, considered mysterious or otherworldly are situations persisting from daily experiences that resides in our subconscious. Such situations may re-appear in dreams and this is what we find fascinating. By trying to re-capture some of these instances in our work, we utilize the principle of the dream theory, re-working or re-experiencing, in a heightened sense, the many mind puzzling, and otherworldly experiences.

In our video installations we work with the notion of time as a presence of space rather than a particular duration. By juxtaposing space to different time sequencing away from the familiar, we obscure the unity and recognize the beauty of a fragment. We try to absorb the ambiance by recording in radical angles and make its shifting realities re-appear in an instant or a glance. We investigate our environment and its energies by stretching, extending and framing its details and thus exposing its potential qualities. Time is filtered through a control of still and moving images so that the tension between them develops into a new space-time, separated from its original environment. As such, the sound always acts as an important element, enhancing the image with spatial qualities and translating the space into its own time unit.



This Contact appears in this database if Microcinema International has screened a film directed by the Contact, a film directed by the contact is featured in a DVD distributed by the Blackchair Collection Shop, or featured an organization or activity linked with the Contact. This database is used for commercial as well as informational, non-commercial purposes. It is a historical archive of Microcinema International's activities.

Inclusion in this database and archive in no way implies a continuing formal relationship or affiliation with Microcinema International or the Blackchair Label nor an endorsement of its activities by the Contact.

Contact details are not displayed in order to protect privacy. If you wish to contact this artist please see their website as listed above or write Microcinema International and we will be happy to forward your e-mail.