20 November – 09 December, 2007
– performance
– performance documentation (photo-documentation: Marko F. Ercegović; video-documentation: Saša Ban & Miroslav Sikavica)
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In the performance ‘Punishment’, Siniša Labrović is playing with the fragile dynamics of expectation and desire, primarily in the relation between the artist and audience. As an artist/cultural worker, he is ready to take action, ready to satisfy the audience’s desire for content and spectacle, which is here inseparable from the artist’s own desire for audience and fulfilling of their expectations. As he himself states in the short CV to summarize his artistic practice, in this particular performance Labrović is also exhibiting ‘a little bit of himself, a little bit of others, and other’. The ‘other’ that is being exhibited in ‘Punishment’ is exactly the unresolved interdependency of self and other. Following on the track of performance artists from the 1960s and 70s, Labrović subverts the idea of artist as autonomous creator and subject, intertwining the positions of performer and viewer, as well as the subject and object of the punishment invoked by the title.
Ivana Bago & Antonia Majača
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So far I have performed ‘Punishment’ twice, once in the O.K. Gallery in Rijeka, once in Belgrade during The Last East European Show, in a space whose name I can’t recall. Due partly to my own ignorance, and partly to the inadequacies of the above mentioned spaces, I have never succeeded to properly perform this piece – the piece that I hold very dearly because, regardless of everything, it is still mine. Furthermore, I possess no documentation of it, and nowadays without documentation – I realized in the meantime, you aren’t worth a plug nickel, or you’re like a stray dog in the rain.
Besides, I wanted to get hold of the Galerija Miroslav Kraljević as such.
Then it occurred to me that the gallery’s layout would be perfect for this work and that here, by doing one performance, I could satisfy all the three above mentioned ambitions.
‘Punishment’ was made when I started wondering why everyone had started beating and terrorizing themselves like crazy. I realized it was something that attracted attention, so I decided to do such a piece myself and get some attention. Being, at the same time, somewhat timid, I thought it might be good if it wasn’t entirely such. So, I put together these two opposite inclinations into one.
And the audience is very important here as well. God helps out the third time. I hope.
Siniša Labrović
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Siniša Labrović was born on 12 February, 1965 in Sinj, Croatia. Baptized. Finished the ‘Frano Masnić’ elementary school, received the sacraments of holy communion and confirmation, then went on to finish the ‘August 10’ highschool. After 12 years of studying at the university, mostly in Zagreb, he became a teacher of Croatian language and literature. Had a job, then lost a job, and 29 times like that, then moved to Zagreb as of recently. Because Zagreb offers much greater possibilities, and because Zagreb is Zagreb.
Exibits since the year 2000, a litlle bit of himself, a little bit of others, and other.
Occasionally, here and there.
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X Mutualities – Introduction
II IVICA MALČIĆ: ’10 new paintings’
III PASKO BURÐELEZ: ‘Untitled’
IV ŽELJKO BADURINA: ‘Coffee & Cakes’
