What Don Quixote did, this artist does it the same!
Who the culture works for? What is art to people? A luxury item? An investment? Or visual fascination?
That’s what this dictator is fighting for!
With building an army of 1400 drawings, which are cave-drawing-like of warriors from different inspiration backgrounds!
Each drawing is original and none is being repeated.
This is not a war, just a special operation.
There’s a silence that’s so loud, even the biggest ear can’t hear!
“In my life, there has only ever been one book I could never manage to finish – and yet, it became the main inspiration for this exhibition: Don Quixote.
He takes his helmet, puts it on, and in that very moment declares himself a knight. He mounts his horse and rides off on imagined missions. And that – that is where the inspiration comes from!
In 2025, Ertunç Sali transforms KSP Center Jadro into the exhibition hall of an entire army. With the show titled Do You Want War? he takes on a role inspired by Don Quixote himself. Just as Quixote declared himself a knight, the artist now declares himself a dictator of art. But this dictatorship is not about tyranny – it is about conflict. Conflict with the public, with the demands of the market, with the very idea of culture today.
And just as Quixote had Sancho Panza at his side, the artist here joins forces with seven-year-old Vedran Troshanski. Together, they create the installations. With his passion for origami, which he has turned into a serious hobby, Vedran folds all the origami fighter jets and tanks for the dictator – and so, he enters the war as the dictator’s special guest, the little origamist.
Like artists before him – Michelangelo, for instance, who despised his patrons and yet created eternal works – today’s artist is forced to measure himself by the rules of design and the market. And so, Sali raises the same dilemma: To whom does culture belong today? To the artist, to the public, or to those who pay for it?
It is time to say ENOUGH. Time to educate an audience that turns exhibitions into fashion shows, furniture into standards, and turns its back on the very works it came to see. Questions are asked, but remain unanswered. And the poor artist cannot provide solutions that were never asked of him.
With over 1,500 drawings and several installations, the artist – inspired by Don Quixote – proclaims himself the ‘dictator of art’ and declares war against public demands. This is not just an exhibition; it is a dramatic clash between art and its audience. This is not a personal thought, but a collective voice of creatives.
Do You Want War? will take place at KSP Center Jadro, from September 30th to October 8th, 2025. The space will be open daily from 18:00 to 20:00.”
This art project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of N.Macedonia.
Special thanks to many friends who helped me in achiving this exhibition and special thanks for Partizan Print who agreed on printing mad projects.
——————————————————————————
