in the kitchen of art residency Bains Connective, Brussels, 2016.
- performance
- artist publication
The title Умjетник Работник Рoботник (artist worker robot) was generated as a conceptual phrase indicating the nature of work in art. The script is based on the experience of working as a technician in the production of museum exhibitions. Abandoned and discarded materials are taken care of and given another look and a new chance to become artworks. Here, the question of who is Adrian Lister is a question of what an artist has to do, must do, and to what level these are (self) imposed categories.
The performance was intentionally done in the kitchen – a place of gathering and exchange in art residencies. Bains Connective residency was founded in 1997 as an artistic laboratory for cross-disciplinary research, dialogue and experiment. Soon after this event, the residency will lose its funding and close. The funding cuts for the arts, in this part of Europe, will get radical in the years to come, but as far as the question of Who is Adrian Lister? is concerned, it was only the beginning of the search for strategies of resistance to the dominant models of production in art.
The publication documents parts of the performance script, a list What an artist has to do besides making an artwork? which is compiled according to internet search, an interview with Karl Mascara – a rock ‘n roll artists band, and an original piece of The Great Wall.
piece of The Great Wall
deposited layers of paint, taken from the Museum wall
This wall surface was taken from the Museum wall by the artist, who was employed there as a technician in February 2014. From her work experience, she recalls: the first two layers of paint (golden and under the base layer of red) were applied for the exhibition of Michiel Coxcie; underneath there are two white layers (primer white and white) applied for the Ugo Rondinone exhibition; and under these, there is a blue layer, painted for a wall-drawing of Sol Lewitt.
