2002, performance
Cultural Center Tochka, Skopje, Macedonia
part of the exhibition project IN SITU, curated by Nada Peseva
Ars Selektive as an action takes on the problem of provoking the idea of social acceptance and rejection in the context of the art performance. We took on the element of the audience to illustrate the discourse found in the subject of the art performance and the social (individual) expectation for an experience (acceptance = positive; rejection = negative).
The selection of the audience was granted to the OPA Security Guard whose criteria for selecting the ‘accepted’ visitors was based on the individual appearance -- those who had knickers, Bermuda shorts or skirt over the knees were invited in, those who did not (majority of the art establishment among others) were invited to wait outside. Their experience to be ‘rejected’ from entering the gallery was animated by a sound installation that involved a recording of a text regarding the project and a lollipop given to them by an OPA Steward.
The audience that has been denied an entry into the gallery becomes an organized social crowd of ‘outsiders’ listening to a recording and imagining the action on the inside. The true action is outside and at the end of the transmitted audio recording (14 minutes) the ‘outsiders’ are allowed to enter inside and see the performances of the other authors in the exhibition.
Ars Selektive was performed again at The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Croatia, in 2003, as part of FONA - The International Festival of New Art.
Download audio from the "opening" in Rijeka
Voice:
Branko Cerovac, Sasho Talevski
