http://theperformanceclub.org/2011/11/open-letter-to-artists/
QUOTES:
“I wanna a voice, loud and clear”
” Artists of all disciplines deserve fair and equal treatment and can organize if we care enough to put the effort into it”
We all do have a voice that potentially can be clear and loud. What defines the way that this voice comes out and how is used? At my opinion, it is not only a matter of the artist’s world. It is something that concerns each individual and the way that copes with exploitation, violence of rights, discrimination, submission to power. And this clear and loud voice is related to the sense of responsability.
SUMMARY of the article.
Event: Marina Abramović. Annual gala of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. (2011)
The artist Sara Wookey writes an open letter in order to explain the reasons for which she refused to parteciapte as performance, even if she was selected for the role and express her opposition against the labor exploitation. The main reasons of her actions are:
- to add my voice *(“I wanna a voice, loud and clear”)
- to clarify my identity
- to prompt a shift of thinking
- to support my overriding interest in organizing and forming a union that secures labor standards and fair wages.
She states that the conditions of the work were problematic, exploitative, and potentially abusive. Specifically:
- I was expected to lie naked and speechless on a slowly rotating table.
- I was expected to ignore any potential physical or verbal harassment while performing
- I was expected to commit to fifteen hours of rehearsal time
- I was to be paid $150.
- During the audition, there was no mention of safeguards, signs, or signals for performers in distress.
- no official or even unofficial standard practice measures for working conditions, compensation, and benefits for artists and performers.
” I refuse to be a silent artist”
“I want to suggest another mode of thinking: When we, as artists, accept or reject work, when we participate in the making of a work, even (or perhaps especially) when it is not our own, we contribute to the establishment of standards and precedents for our cohort and all who will come after us.”
“I am grateful to Rainer for utilizing her position” ( Follows an article regarding Rainer’s reaction ) http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/750038/yvonne-rainer-denounces-marina-abramovics-planned-moca-gala-performance-as-grotesque
ABOUT THE COMMENTS:
- The most of the people that reply in the blog are feeling to be rappresented by Sara’s voice.Mainly one sided comments.
- Interesting the opposition of Doran Georg: “
“Despite your claim that your agenda is ethical rather than artistic criticism, you use the performance practice of silence and duration as the metaphor for enduring an ethically and economically dubious situation.”
“I am concerned about the conditions for all artists, “live art” is too easily wrapped up with exploitation because historically it has been misunderstood, and often explicitly engages with power in its practice.!
- and of the partecipant on teh event SC Fallou:
” I feel a certain righteous tone belies the rightful perspectives in your post, a tone which invalidates each artist’s will and choices involved in this event”
“The pool of power, money and resources represented under that tent that night, and the systems which the event symbolized are indeed the issues which need to be addressed, not a single artist’s choices nor the tip-of-the-iceberg banal (albeit interesting-weird in this case) gala format itself.”
http://iamled.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/artists-exploiting-artists/
“Ms Abramovic is so wedded to her original vision that she – and by extension, the Museum director and curators — doesn’t see the egregious associations for the performers, who, though willing, will be exploited nonetheless. Their desperate voluntarism says something about the generally exploitative conditions of the art world such that people are willing to become decorative table ornaments installed by a celebrity artist in the hopes of somehow breaking into the show biz themselves” Y. Rainer.
Is it about performer’s exploitation or about Abramovic?
What about Santiego Sierra?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoYNgnDUl8
What about Vanessa Beecroft?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkVFm0pvPmA