Performance '' performing depicting'' is a collaborative project between two artists and partners Iva Kovac and Elvis Krstulovic. It is also a continuation of another two collaboration performances that explored the issues of collaboration as well as gender issues, questions of personal and public…
We as artists each engage in separate artistic practices and interests, but we periodically make collaborative works – primarily performances. One performance (Kkkkkraj) was completely produced and performed and the other (Sculpture) was realized to the detail but the performance itself was cancelled at the last moment due to the change of context it was meant to address. We are using some of the ideas we meant to realize in the performance ''Sculpture'' as our point of departure.
In our daily and professional life we benefit a lot form the fact that both of us work in the same field so many of the tasks we have as artists we help each other resolve. Also, we share a lot of theoretical knowledge in a way that some of the knowledge one of us gathers is transferred to the other, hence faster learning.
We will be using this as the guideline to develop a certain time related patterns we are going to follow trough the performance. We are going to, literally step into the other ones place to take the responsibility for, and conduct the performance, discussion. We are going to do this in a way that we are not going to perform at any given moment –together.
Performance itself is going to be consisted of both of us working on a same painting, that is going to be split with a line vertically in two halves. Each of us is going to paint another one, never actually working in the part of the painting another one is working on but the painting itself is nevertheless going to be physically and conceptually – one work. The work on the painting/performance is going to be conducted during the course of two weeks of ’’Staging the future’’, during which each of us is going to have informal presentations and discussions held according to his or her own interests in the performance. During the course of two weeks, there is going to be a diary conducted, which is going to follow the progress of the performance, reactions of the viewers, discussions and thoughts of the participators/viewers and the performances. These materials gathered are going to be used in a small collaborative publication – a document/artists book.
We are interested to investigate the questions of depicting and performing (the self and the other) trough intersecting two media that each bear inclinations towards one of those (historically and problematically), and use these as platforms for actually staging our professional and personal relationship – to address the issues of gender, the body and sexuality, subjectivity and love.
These are off course the basic parameters we have prepared but all of it is open for change and collaboration with the rest of the ’’Staging the future’’ project.
