Monday

40 Stunden Tag der Arbeit / 40 Ore Festa di Lavoro



40 Stunden Tag der Arbeit
(40 Hours Labour Day)

2005, Performance Tour
Performance with check clock, from 9 – 5, 8 hours a day, 5 days in 5 different cities.
May 1st. Galeria V Leonardi, Genova, Italy
May 2nd. Atelier degli Artisti, Brescia, Italy
May 3rd. White Space, Zuerich, Switzerland
May 4th. Sprechstation, Konstanz Germany
May 5th. Gallerie EigenArt, Stuttgart, Germany

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g4AfSYQo2g

Buon Natale Moreno


Buon Natale Moreno
(Happy Christmas Moreno)
 
2005, Intervention
One of the interventions by Pink Project, phosphorescent pink intervention in public spaces.

Meyrat & Huber



Meyrat&Huber

2006, Collaborative project with Celine Meyrat

In collaboration with Celine Meyrat we printed very decorative but extremely useless technical drawings on table cloths, t-shirts and postcards etc.


This is an Art Work



This is an Art Work

2006, Sticker

With this DIY sticker everybody can become an Artist in only 5 seconds.

Videoboxing



Videoboxing

2006, Event
In 2006 WVBA, the World Video Boxing Association was founded.
Video Boxing is a new, selective way to present artists videos to an engaged audience.
Two artists - one box ring, two minutes - one fight. The winner can screen his video, no video could be longer than two minutes. The audience decided whether or not the video was good enough to let the artist go back to the ring to encounter another combatant, and therefore, to have another chance to screen another of his videos.

Champion of the evening is the artist with the most screened videos.

In 2006 the first video box fights took place at Utopia, Prague, Czech Republic.

ournameisgoodinovertencountries




Ournameisgoodinovertencountries

Since 2006, Intervention/Performance

“…met in Prague where they first started the electro clash project “PeterVenkman’s Ucockl”.

Since spring 2006 we have also been showing interactive installations as OURNAMEISGOODINOVERTENCOUNTRIES.

In June 2006 Tim Birtwistle and I, realized a performance together. The piece was presented as part of a group exhibition in the Atelier Sedivy in Prague. Our idea was to “give everybody the chance to buy an art work for an affordable price”, made possible, by purchasing Tim.

The basic price was very low but became more expensive depending on what people were asking for. In this situation a number of things changed. Acting as a ‘middleman’, I propositioned the purchaser, who entered the room individually, to use Tim to realise his or her own ideas. Tim became an instrument in the completion of the work or action while the idea, the creative part, was that of the spectator. We offered an open creative space, in which the spectator was forced from the position of mere passive consumer to take responsibility for what was to happen.

The project was based on the idea that every creative process contains three factors: the circumstances, the environment which creates the basis and offers the physical space where things can happen; the idea or the concept, the reason to do a creative act; and the execution, the realisation of the idea, the proper work or action. Without an initial idea there would be no reason to do anything, there would not be any artwork; without the realization of an idea, the idea would not have any effect; and an adequate environment is needed to make a realisation possible.

For the common project this means that I had to create the ambience, the audience was invited to bring the ideas, and Tim Birtwistle had to realize these ideas. The project was within a high degree of creative interactivity with a potential far beyond a smoothly presented and nicely arranged performances or well designed ‘Human-Computer Interaction’. Here there is no limitation. The spectator is not asked to act in a well-prepared and predetermined situation. Here the spectator is an emancipated part of the actual creation of the work.

The core of the work is not the representation of a produced art work, but the production of a piece itself. It is thus not to exhibit something for the spectator, but to share an experience with her/him.


www.ournameisgoodinovertencountries.org
www.myspace.com/ournameisgoodinovertencountries

CCTV Campaign





CCTV Campaign

2006/2007, Campaign

Posters, flyers, manual

SA Europe



Open day UCCA
 
2007, Intervention
During the academic year several open days take place on the University campus. The first time I saw it, I was surprised by the high glossy mannered way the University advertises its fine art program. It was interesting to be informed about all the “career opportunities”, and the “industry links” a Fine Arts degree has to offer. I thought the way life and future as an artist has been presented was a bit too optimistic. To bring the light of wisdom in the world, I decided to tell everyone the truth about what it means to study Fine Arts. Quoting a U.S. government research, I hung up posters warning people that it is  better not to become artists because the risk of suicide is three times higher than in other professions. As soon as I placed my posters, someone removed them.
 
For the next open day, I tried to convince the Student Union to support my campaign. The representative of the local Union refused to support my mission to save some innocent souls, as she did not want to scare prospective students.
 
For the last open day of the year, I booked two tutorials with visiting lecturers, I booked a wall space in the reception area; I had to do this with the manager of the Herbert Read Gallery; I had to get a risk assessment form from the fine art office, I had to fill out four pages of risk assessment, had to have it signed by my course leader (who was ill during this period, so I had to locate a replacement signature), then I had to show and discuss the risk assessment form with the senior technician, he had  sign it again, as well as myself. After I brought my four page long risk assessment, that had been signed three times, to the gallery manager and explained to her that I would not hang up “controversial” work, (she was concerned about pornographic images, as she was aware of the coming open day); after all that; I was finally allowed to attach three A2 posters on a white wall (with Blu Tack, so as not to damage the wall).
 
Can’t take a joke if it is about health and safety!
The next day my posters were gone. I had my space booked, I had appointments for my tutorials, I had my papers signed, and the posters went back on the wall.
 
The posters had been entitled Fine Art Career Opportunities, showing people in front of the job centre, working in a pub, or selling the Big Issue, on the bottom has been the Internet address linked to a page with vacancies for minimum wage jobs. During the open day, the table where the University welcomes the prospective students stood next to my posters, as though they were a part of the decoration which has been put up for this occasion.
The aspect of this work I am interested in, and which, I think, has an esthetical value, is the way in which all these bits and pieces have been required to arrange in order to make everything work.

Tobyland



Tobyland
Latvia’s first nightmare theme park
 
2007, Intervention
For the Valmiera Art Symposium we did an advertisement campaign for the Tobyland nightmare theme park.
 
Passer-bys at the Valmiera coach station could take a free photo from a photographer in a Tobyland scenery and then they could take part at a raffle.
The prizes have been three bottles of Riga Balsam, a strong Latvian Liquor.
 
The winners have been nominated during the Gala evening at the end of the Symposium, the winners could collect their bottles at the Valmiera City Council.   
 
It is the declared goal of the city mayor to make Valmiera a clean and friendly town, and to fight crime and alcoholism. All the more we were happy to get so much support from the council to realise our campaign.

SS Security Ltd.


120 WORN COATS

2007, Interactive performance

SS Security Services LTD had its first public appearance at the group exhibition “IF IT IS TO BE”, in the Bridge Gallery, London. For security reasons the audience in the gallery at the evening of the opening had to be limited on 120 persons in the exhibition space at a time. To guarantee a maximum of safety for our guests, and to be sure all regulations regarding the venue will be respected, SS LTD. has developed a security concept for the Private View.

SS Security Services LTD provided the personnel as well as the equipment to realise the developed security concept.

SS Staff was present during the opening at:

-the main entrance to the building at Brick Lane

-the entrance to the exhibition space

-at the cloakroom

-in the gallery space

-a shift manager coordinated the staff, supported by a CCTV set, and guaranteed the maximum efficiency of the work force.

The duty of the SS staff was to guarantee:

-everybody behaved as they should

-no more than 120 people in the exhibition space,

-all of these 120 visitors were wearing a white protection coat during their stay in the venue


The coats for the audience were available at the cloakroom at the entrance to the gallery.

This ensured not only that everything was safe and quiet, but also looked very, very attractive.