This work was conceived in order to question a specific performance. Realized as an intervention made directly ‘on the work’ – in this case the performer’s body as she was performing - not in retrospect. Therefore it was a critical statement realized through artistic means which enabled me with an immediate response but at the same time I risked an unpredictable reaction.
To describe what the piece is about I have to focus on somebody else’s work first - the performance I intervened in: The performer stands still and quiet for half an hour, five days in a row, in a gallery space open to visitors, and the visitors are welcomed to interact with her as encouraged in the invitation. Thereby it is suggested that she is revealing herself to the public. Since the performance was done in a familiar environment (the gallery space inside the art academy) with only a few visitors, most of them being artist’s friends, I tried to provoke a shock and see how the performance would develop. I have asked the performer to allow me to create a work of mine by participating (as well as contributing to her participatory performance) to what she had agreed. I have kissed her as I was encouraged by the invitation, among other suggestions. My action was received as an assault and I was first denied right to publicly exhibit the piece (by the performer), and later we reached a compromise, by which I was allowed to exhibit but only under the terms of concealing her identity. In my opinion, the circumstances in which the performance was staged were at odds with a possibility of a significant interaction and this is what it was declaratively aiming at - opening to the public. The idea itself seemed intensely reminiscent of Marina Abramović’s Rthym 0 where Abramović exposed herself to the public, an action that has almost finished with severe consequences.
In body art and performance practices the work is not in what you see (one person standing) but in the whole series of events and opinions it is able to produce. I believe that just as my piece depended on hers so did her piece benefited from my intervention.
2005 performed, 2008 video 3'48''
public presentations/exhibitions: Miller Gallery, Indiana PA (USA), SC Gallery Zagreb, O3on Gallery Belgrade
To describe what the piece is about I have to focus on somebody else’s work first - the performance I intervened in: The performer stands still and quiet for half an hour, five days in a row, in a gallery space open to visitors, and the visitors are welcomed to interact with her as encouraged in the invitation. Thereby it is suggested that she is revealing herself to the public. Since the performance was done in a familiar environment (the gallery space inside the art academy) with only a few visitors, most of them being artist’s friends, I tried to provoke a shock and see how the performance would develop. I have asked the performer to allow me to create a work of mine by participating (as well as contributing to her participatory performance) to what she had agreed. I have kissed her as I was encouraged by the invitation, among other suggestions. My action was received as an assault and I was first denied right to publicly exhibit the piece (by the performer), and later we reached a compromise, by which I was allowed to exhibit but only under the terms of concealing her identity. In my opinion, the circumstances in which the performance was staged were at odds with a possibility of a significant interaction and this is what it was declaratively aiming at - opening to the public. The idea itself seemed intensely reminiscent of Marina Abramović’s Rthym 0 where Abramović exposed herself to the public, an action that has almost finished with severe consequences.
In body art and performance practices the work is not in what you see (one person standing) but in the whole series of events and opinions it is able to produce. I believe that just as my piece depended on hers so did her piece benefited from my intervention.
2005 performed, 2008 video 3'48''
public presentations/exhibitions: Miller Gallery, Indiana PA (USA), SC Gallery Zagreb, O3on Gallery Belgrade