The First Murder 

The assassination of Yugoslav King Aleksandar I Karađorđević on 9 October 1934 in Marseille was recorded by a camera. The footage was distributed at the time, among others, by Universal Newsreels and introduced as “the most amazing pictures ever made”. From our perspective, we can see it as the first murder in a world of media that means as the first murder of 20^th century. The First Murder is a two-channel video installation showing reconstruction of those pictures. The new pictures were recorded in a same way and from the very same spots where original cameras were standing in 1934. This would not be possible, if La Canebière street – the place of the murder – didn’t stay almost the same as 70 years ago. There is no murder in the reconstructed images, only people on a street following their own paths and daily routines. In this time, images of violence and death have become a product. The fact that through the mass media we are being constantly exposed to such images for almost a century, made us ignorant and immune to tragic events around us.

Vladimir Nikolić