2014
À la Cart Performance Webshop
Fully functional web shop where you can buy performance art. Controversial? Perhaps.
Idea, performance, direction: Nina Jan and Urša Sekirnik
Web design: Maarten Janssen and Fabian Valkenberg (Janssen & Valkenberg)
Programming of the Webshop: Quentin Drouet
Camera and editing: Momchil Alexiev
Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2014
Artistic director: Janez Janša
Producer: Marcela Okretič
Co-production: KUD NUM and CUK Kino Šiška
Supported by: Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Škofja Loka, Muelle3, TragantDansa, Centre Cultural Albareda, NFTA, Turist farm Žgajnar
Special thanks to all those who in need came indeed: Toni Mlakar, Momchil Alexiev, Bram Loogman, Maarten Janssen, Sergio González Cuervo, Polona Reya, Etienne Van Hezewijk, Ida Jan, Žan Kalan, Jana and Matej Demšar, Marjan Sekirnik, Fabian Valkenberg, Kaja Teržan, Nina Djekić, Matevž Ftičar, Boštjan Jakopec, Kobe Geboers, Tomaž Furlan, Dragan Kalinović
Past performances:
Come together #3, Frascati, 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Estruch Fabrica de Creacio, 2016, Sabadell, Spain
Espai Salamina, Hospitalet de Llobregat, 2015 Spain
Drugo More, 2015, Rijeka, Croatia
Mladi Levi International festival, 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Kino Šiška, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia
MEDIA REVIEWS:
Jela Krečič, Delo newspaper, September 20 2014:
/À la Cart Performance/ is a conceptual work of art that /…/ questions the conditions of artistic production of today. Within the artists’ ironic approach to selling their own art it is hard to overlook their critical political point, directed towards – generally speaking – the capitalistic system. To be specific, one of the targets of the performance is, among others, contemporary consumerism that kidnapped all spheres of life, including the very spirit itself, that is not supposed to be reduced to something as banal as the market value.
The method of the À la Cart Performance has been proven successful: it is using the market system itself to extract and shed light on the absurdity and nonsense that it produces. But what this very thorough and witty project shows above all is that contemporary consumerism with its never-ending innovations, offers and new possibilities of shopping for fetishised objects and by developing new and new methods of mesmerizing/ seducing the buyer, the market, at least partially, imitates the creative strategies of the artists.
Mojca Pišek, Dnevnik newspaper, September 19 2014:
Against artistic romantic euphoria…
The artists are for sale, but setting their own rules…
/Jan and Sekirnik/ … intentionally make us believe that they are, as artists, entering a slippery slope, where, according to many, there’s no space for art: aggressive marketing, customization of products, commercialization of (artistic) offer. However, one cannot overlook an extremely thorough assessment of conditions in which contemporary art is produced that lies behind Jan’s and Sekirnik’s concept.
In 2014 Nina Jan in Urša Sekirnik opened a fully functional web shop where you can order performance art (www.a-la-cart.com), and invite you to become an art enthusiast. Throught the webshop, you can order a performance, customise it to you your needs or even order an artistic chapter from scratch. Everything will be performed live for you!
What an absurd idea, you might think.
Is it really? Maybe Jan and Sekirnik only invite us to re-think about the working conditions which contemporary performance artists are faced with and ask us if we truly believe that art, when being sold, is anything other than a consumer product. And that the two of them, instead of ignoring this fact, are looking for ways to have greater creative autonomy in their artistic practice.
How does the À la Cart Performance Webshop work? Scroll down and take a private guided tour!
