About This Show

This is not my piece is a new work by Ina Sladić which reflects on ways in which historic performances could be presented today – and what presentable means.

The work is inspired by the original work Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful which was performed by Marina Abramović in 1975 at Charlottenburg Art Festival in Copenhagen and was in retrospect focusing on the then very relevant but simple and obvious question if art should be beautiful according to the definition of beauty formed in petit-bourgeois salons or if it should instead hold a critical position towards the reality of society and not care about the classical definitions of beauty. At that time, the art scene was introducing aesthetic of pain, aesthetic of the ugly, aesthetic of shock. 40 years since that piece, and many others that questioned the position of art in society, it seems other pressing matters surround art. Today, we as artists are not that much concerned about beauty in art – and rightly so. Today, it is all about ownership. Nobody dared yet to call it aesthetic of ownership, but it is here.

So, This is not my piece reflects on questions of ownership of memory, of artistic freedom, of possession of image.

This is not my piece reflects also on young artist´s development through works she did for other artists. The work is characterised by a working relationship in the world of visual and performance art through collaborations and re-performances, which influence the material, texture and structure of the final piece. Or is it product?

The Queer New York International Arts Festival (Artistic Director Zvonimir Dobrović), now in its fifth year, presents contemporary performance and visual art that broadens the traditional concepts of queer (in) art. Learn more about the festival and the participating artists at www.queerny.org
Festival runs from September 20 – October 2, 2016