Iza Pavlina: ‘Talk To Strangers’

Iza Pavlina: ‘Talk To Strangers’

Check the video.

Talk to Strangers! is the title of the half-hour video through which I try to highlight and expose in an original and unobtrusive way the global issue of disorders of sexual preference and the incidence of paedophilia on the World Wide Web. The title of the video quotes the slogan of the online video chat room Omegle, where individuals are able to contact strangers from different parts of the world anonymously through their web cameras. Using make-up, lighting and clothes, I introduced myself in the chat room as a 14-year-old girl and participated in many conversations, paying special attention to the incidence of paedophilia among older users of the portal. This video shows footage from one of such conversations, in which I communicate with an anonymous older British gentleman via written text and web camera, pretending I am an underage girl. The aim of this project is not to moralize, but only to unveil this hidden world, as well as to highlight the mutual position of those who are manipulated and those who are the manipulators.

(by Iza Pavlina, 2014)

(photos courtesy of Tomaž Črnej and http://koridor-ku.si/recenzije/talk-to-strangers/)