PERFORMATIVE PROJECT / PUBLIC SPACE
WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU? is an artistic project that takes place in the public, private, intimate and daily space of citizens whose tax money contributes to financing artistic endeavors. The goal of this project is to ask citizens a performative question about the value of artistic acts, moments, and exchanges; a question about the effects that art produces and the means necessary to their production. Much of this encounter happens through the conception a work of art which citizens are given the opportunity to commission.
This project is designed as a multistage course in which participants are encouraged to reflect on, think through, and test the mechanics of desire at work in every artistic act or negotiation.
By performing itself as a service that makes available a series of skills to patrons, the project creates the conditions for a deeper exchange on the question of art: who looks at art, and who does art look at?
PRACTICAL MATTERS
Future patrons will first call a special phone number to set up a meeting to discuss their commission with the artist.
The object of the commission should not necessarily be artistic in character, but citizens will be expected to justify why they would see fit to ask an artist to produce it.
The artist and patrons will discuss the terms of the commission in a 30-minute,public negotiation.
If the negotiation succeeds, the artist will produce a response to the commission, no matter its content. Patrons will commit to receiving the response—no matter its form—and to be present when it is produced.
Production will occur on a date determined by the patrons and the artist together and scheduled during the project’s hosting period.
Tags: commitment, generosity, Guillemins, L’Esact, mediation, QUE PUIS-JE FAIRE POUR VOUS, reciprocity, Ribaucourt, Shopshop, solicitation