DRINKS FOR ANYBODY NOT FOR US
/ WE WISH YOU THE BEST FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR ARTISTIC CAREER AND BEYOND
Participative performance / self-organized conceptual art residency / missing object (2018)
In the family apartment in Novi Sad, an art residency was organized for fellow artists from Austria, USA, Mexico, the Netherlands, UK and Serbia with the idea to discuss, share and heal frustrations related to open calls and competitions in the field of art and culture. The self-organized artist-in-residence program was focused on sound and performance and gathered about 15 people in 3 cycles over the course of a month. It is conceived as a continuous audio recording that records the movement of the group, so occasional or planned performances, as well as private situations and conversations intertwine in their final (audio) form.
Thematically, the residency focused on the survival policies of artists and cultural workers who depend on arts and culture funds and other external resources. Small successes and failures, but also great frustrations communicate in the context of pure existence, which is constantly in question, while we remain in an ongoing and continuous process of applying - which becomes an everyday ritual. The key word is: (un)certainty.
The idea, the structure as well as the public visibility of the residency bring a certain dose of sarcasm, emphasizing the absurdity in which we are living. This AiR program is defined as private and secret, because the participants are selected on a private basis, and the open call is published one day after the application deadline. In that way, whoever thought of applying for this residence was doomed to failure. The SD card from the audio recorder, which was marked as an archival object, was symbolically declared missing and remained as a photograph - representing this frozen moment in our lives.