Situation Normal All Fucked Up
Situation Normal: All Fucked Up (SNAFU)*
object, phorography printed on 300lb photo paper, mounted on board, topmaster professional nivel
image size 32,5 x 37 cm, framed size: 35 х 40 cm, Edition of 5+1 AP, Anton Terziev, 09.2022
Photo: © the artist
Courtesy the artist
View of the Costa Concordia taken on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio. 32 passengers and crew members drowned after the Italian ship with some 4,200 people on board ran aground. The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it hit a reef near the island of Giglio, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner. Last night, 613 days after the original incident, Salvage crews successfully rolled the Costa Concordia into an upright position.
Terziev’s pairing of documentary precision and conceptual wit blurs archive and allegory. Framed like a maritime relic, _SNAFU_ references 32 lives lost during what should have been an ordinary dinner—then wryly notes the ship lay overturned for 613 days before salvage crews righted her. Yet the nivel insists that some imbalances can’t be corrected by technique or will alone.
At once eulogy and indictment, _SNAFU_ honors its human toll while critiquing our neurotic faith in metrics. In its spare elegance, the installation holds up a disquieting mirror: our relentless pursuit of equilibrium may be what keeps us perpetually off-balance.
