where are we now? while in the same time each of us is also somewhere else*
Two is a dialogue three is a conversation. The time of the narrative starts with the biography of the subjects, which means from the time of their productive life.
A: I can’t concentrate today. My head is heavy, my thoughts are blurred.
B: Don’t mourn over something you haven’t lost yet.
A: If I am artist I can, but if I am an art worker I can’t.
B: Calling yourself an art worker describes a professional position.
D: No, it describes primarily a political position.
A: I can’t define my enemy. There is no clearly defined alternative either.
D: I think I can define my enemy, there are just so many. In one moment, I had to choose between fight and work. I choose the work and went away. But for you and me both, it is about finding the way to continue doing art without taking part in the dirty political game of the power structures in the system.
There is also C, but C is a quiet listener. C is sometimes facially expressing the attendance in the talk and gives an assertive supporting smile mostly for ironic and some cynical comments.
Luckily, English language allows us not to define their genders.
They are all dedicated artists with more or less experience. They are having a thoughtful conversation, thus there is no space for the issues concerning their talent or geniality.
B: You have to find the way to move, to be more flexible. Bounded to one place is a bound to economy.
A: The life and work merged, I sleep in the same place where I work. I have to be available always and deliver results with high performances.
B: Maybe it was always like that. Vital experience never matches the institutional history.
D: In the future there won’t be such a thing as an institutional history or any kind of history of our times. The future to come will be ever changing now.
B: What we need now is a new terminology and means of delineation of what is considered to be the role of the artist.
A: Don’t you see that we are all dressed in black? We are made-to-order to fit the same model with all our differences.
D: I agree with B, while we are documenting the present that is already the past, the future is evolving in front of our eyes.
B: Art and life have merged in a dystrophic manner, and everyday is occupied with a spectacle.
A: So what is there in or for art to be done? If I only knew that this is what it is to be an artist, I would have been a scientist.
B: It is on us to use all the things at our disposal as artists. You cannot wait to be discovered, to be chosen, to be invited.
D: Nothing is fixed; there are always loopholes in a system to be used for developing new potential agencies.
B: An object can lead to a project, which can then become an organization.
*this story is written using notes taken on the professional meetings, artist talks and friendly conversations