Auction performance by Katarina Stegnar
In this performance about the difference between the price and the value of an art work Katarina uncompromisingly tackles the question about the value of a performers work: “For the money you had to pay for the entrance fee you legitimately expect to see something new. A new art piece, a new fascination, a new vision… To be honest, for this money you expect a lot. But in this situation, that is the real relationship between us. This is the real price you’re prepared to invest in an event, for which nobody can guarantee it will have any artistic value. Since the entry stakes are high, the beginning price is expectedly low.” Katarina puts the viewer into a witness position of the creation of her art work. By that he in fact becomes the only one who can place value on it, and asks herself: is my viewer therefore also my ideal buyer? This she can test only by the auction of artefact she has created in front of his eyes.
Conceived and written by Katarina Stegnar and Bojan Jablanovec
Performer: Katarina Stegnar
Direction: Bojan Jablanovec
Photographer: Marcandrea Bragalini
Producer: Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa, 2010, with the support by Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana
Premiere: 22 August 2009, Young Lions Festival Ljubljana
Duration: 45 min