slovensko I current

Exhibition piece: RANDOM PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS
Description:
Exhibition room 105: A little table with chairs (supplied by the organizer) with the inscription:
Naključni osebni pogovori - Random Private Conversations
Milena Kosec, Career Contemporary artist, Ljubljana.
The artist talks with the visitors focusing on the visitor’s life and activities.
September , 2008.
On the table there will be my business cards and perhaps some flowers.
I ask a random visitor of the exhibition if he/she wishes to talk to me for about half an hour. I invite his/her to sit down at the table. I briefly explain the basic goal of the project: personal relations, immateriality, uniqueness and randomness. At the beginning of the discussion I ask him/her about his/her reasons for visiting the exhibition. The main questions are about his/hers work/job, interests and finally about future. At first I allow the visitor to speak spontaneously. Usually the talk becomes very personal and it is hard to stop it.
About the project:
Personal
Instead of a TWOLOGUE (two monologues), when two persons speak parallel to each other, I try to point out how rare a real DIALOGUE is between two persons.
Because the visitor and I do not know each other, it is much easier to have a really open and sincere conversation. If I talk with two visitors at the same time, there is immediate censorship.
Nowadays, sincerity is proclaimed as important (a personal adviser can suggest your personal trend, were to go and who to meet, etc...) but in reality it is mostly non-existent. If I may exaggerate a little - only originals and outcasts can afford it.
In my projects I always stress direct contact with the audience and its key role. Because we live in an overdose of offers, we choose only what we are really interested in – so, in my work I try to get closer to people.
Immateriality
I don’t want to produce or destroy anything with my work.
I am also critical about ‘services economy’ with more and more employees. This industry may not be producing things; nevertheless, it is destroying a lot of materials.
I do not produce any artifacts nor do I document my work anymore.
Momentary, non-repeating
First: I preserve the intimacy of the event and fully concentrate on the conversation. Both are nowadays almost impossible (there are cameras everywhere, everyone makes photos of everything, internet blogs... - I do not wish to contribute to this pollution).
Second: Our society demands everything at once - here and now. There is no time to achieve wholeness and entirety. It is important to present a new product as quickly as possible, even though it has imperfections, and to jump and develop a new one.
Coincidence
Coincidence is very important to me, so I invite people to talk to me randomly from the audience. The table with chairs is exhibited throughout the exhibition. Coincidence is present almost in all my projects. I use coincidence in my projects deliberately. Thus, new coincidences make a process out of my projects.
The role of the gallery institution
The role of the gallery institution is especially exposed. From the gallery I expect: organization, representation, theoretical support, mediation and documentation. This I see as the true meaning of the institution of a gallery. From the gallery or the organizer, I expect to pay the costs of production and artist's fee. In addition I point out my artistic title – career contemporary artist.
My work is properly finished if the gallery has done its job.
The Organic Development of the Past in the Project RANDOM PERSONAL CONVERSATIONS 2008
The project developed in several directions:
- From the very beginning of my artistic creativity, I dealt with my old, used, surplus objects in different ways and tried to get rid of them. I realized the gradual liberation from the material world with a project called Past work – sell out „Buyer sets the price“ (Minulo delo - razprodaja »Kupec določi ceno«) in year of 2004.
- I have always encouraged the audience to actively take part into my work. Personal communication was the key in my action „Heartbeat“ (»Srčni utrip«) in 1995 in Venice/Italy and Ljubljana/Slovenia, and performed again in Graz/Austria in 2006. Here I noticed that people just need some hint to start to talk about themselves and their views about the world – that they mostly just need a listener.
- Quick social changes encouraged me to think abut the topic of work: what it is, its necessity, what it means to the individual and society. So from 2000 I started to introduce this topic into my creations.
I used the term „personal conversations about work“ for the first time in „Art project“ („A rt projekt“) in 2005 at the Graphic Centre (MGLC Ljubljana) and at the Modern Gallery (Moderna galerija Ljubljana), when I systematically talked to all the gallery employees about their work. At that time I still made notes. A short list of their work areas was presented at the exhibition together with a group photo, a list of the people employed and their official work responsibilities.
I did the same in „Personal art network - fragment 2006“ („Osebna art mreža – fragment 2006“).
The next step was at the „Intermediate Spaces“ festival („ Vmesni prostori“) in autumn of 2006, when on „Working promenades “(»Delovni sprehodi «) I talked with colleagues from Austria about their working plans. Since no notes were taken the working promenades remain only in the memories of the participants and in one photo.
In the context of a » Reality Log/ Environmental Scan« workshop by Stefan Doepner in November 2006 in the P74 gallery in Šentvid Ljubljana I walked around for two days and talked to the locals at random. I made no recordings. My belief is that it is not ethical to use unknown people for documentation and post-production. I just presented it briefly in a short poetic text.
I made a radical decision not to document my work in the future. (All production after that is only about my past work for the „The Pocket-size State of Scarecrows“ („Državica Ptičjestrašilna“).
Next was the „Random personal conversations“ (» Naključni osebni pogovori«) at the Modern Gallery in Ljubljana in 2007. Here I put forward the concepts of immateriality, the uniqueness of a moment, together with non-repeatability and the personal addressing of the visitor. To this I also added the random choice of a participant in the conversation and my random appearances at the gallery.


slovensko I current
	Exhibition piece: RANDOM PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS Description: Exhibition room 105: A little table with chairs (supplied by the organizer) with the inscription: Naključni osebni pogovori - Random Private Conversations Milena Kosec, Career Contemporary artist, Ljubljana. The artist talks with the visitors focusing on the visitor’s life and activities. September , 2008. On the table there will be my business cards and perhaps some flowers. I ask a random visitor of the exhibition if he/she wishes to talk to me for about half an hour. I invite his/her to sit down at the table. I briefly explain the basic goal of the project: personal relations, immateriality, uniqueness and randomness. At the beginning of the discussion I ask him/her about his/her reasons for visiting the exhibition. The main questions are about his/hers work/job, interests and finally about future. At first I allow the visitor to speak spontaneously. Usually the talk becomes very personal and it is hard to stop it. About the project: Personal Instead of a TWOLOGUE (two monologues), when two persons speak parallel to each other, I try to point out how rare a real DIALOGUE is between two persons. Because the visitor and I do not know each other, it is much easier to have a really open and sincere conversation. If I talk with two visitors at the same time, there is immediate censorship. Nowadays, sincerity is proclaimed as important (a personal adviser can suggest your personal trend, were to go and who to meet, etc...) but in reality it is mostly non-existent. If I may exaggerate a little - only originals and outcasts can afford it. In my projects I always stress direct contact with the audience and its key role. Because we live in an overdose of offers, we choose only what we are really interested in – so, in my work I try to get closer to people. Immateriality I don’t want to produce or destroy anything with my work. I am also critical about ‘services economy’ with more and more employees. This industry may not be producing things; nevertheless, it is destroying a lot of materials. I do not produce any artifacts nor do I document my work anymore. Momentary, non-repeating First: I preserve the intimacy of the event and fully concentrate on the conversation. Both are nowadays almost impossible (there are cameras everywhere, everyone makes photos of everything, internet blogs... - I do not wish to contribute to this pollution). Second: Our society demands everything at once - here and now. There is no time to achieve wholeness and entirety. It is important to present a new product as quickly as possible, even though it has imperfections, and to jump and develop a new one. Coincidence Coincidence is very important to me, so I invite people to talk to me randomly from the audience. The table with chairs is exhibited throughout the exhibition. Coincidence is present almost in all my projects. I use coincidence in my projects deliberately. Thus, new coincidences make a process out of my projects. The role of the gallery institution The role of the gallery institution is especially exposed. From the gallery I expect: organization, representation, theoretical support, mediation and documentation. This I see as the true meaning of the institution of a gallery. From the gallery or the organizer, I expect to pay the costs of production and artist's fee. In addition I point out my artistic title – career contemporary artist. My work is properly finished if the gallery has done its job. The Organic Development of the Past in the Project RANDOM PERSONAL CONVERSATIONS 2008 The project developed in several directions: - From the very beginning of my artistic creativity, I dealt with my old, used, surplus objects in different ways and tried to get rid of them. I realized the gradual liberation from the material world with a project called Past work – sell out „Buyer sets the price“ (Minulo delo - razprodaja »Kupec določi ceno«) in year of 2004. - I have always encouraged the audience to actively take part into my work. Personal communication was the key in my action „Heartbeat“ (»Srčni utrip«) in 1995 in Venice/Italy and Ljubljana/Slovenia, and performed again in Graz/Austria in 2006. Here I noticed that people just need some hint to start to talk about themselves and their views about the world – that they mostly just need a listener. - Quick social changes encouraged me to think abut the topic of work: what it is, its necessity, what it means to the individual and society. So from 2000 I started to introduce this topic into my creations. I used the term „personal conversations about work“ for the first time in „Art project“ („A rt projekt“) in 2005 at the Graphic Centre (MGLC Ljubljana) and at the Modern Gallery (Moderna galerija Ljubljana), when I systematically talked to all the gallery employees about their work. At that time I still made notes. A short list of their work areas was presented at the exhibition together with a group photo, a list of the people employed and their official work responsibilities. I did the same in „Personal art network - fragment 2006“ („Osebna art mreža – fragment 2006“). The next step was at the „Intermediate Spaces“ festival („ Vmesni prostori“) in autumn of 2006, when on „Working promenades “(»Delovni sprehodi «) I talked with colleagues from Austria about their working plans. Since no notes were taken the working promenades remain only in the memories of the participants and in one photo. In the context of a » Reality Log/ Environmental Scan« workshop by Stefan Doepner in November 2006 in the P74 gallery in Šentvid Ljubljana I walked around for two days and talked to the locals at random. I made no recordings. My belief is that it is not ethical to use unknown people for documentation and post-production. I just presented it briefly in a short poetic text. I made a radical decision not to document my work in the future. (All production after that is only about my past work for the „The Pocket-size State of Scarecrows“ („Državica Ptičjestrašilna“). Next was the „Random personal conversations“ (» Naključni osebni pogovori«) at the Modern Gallery in Ljubljana in 2007. Here I put forward the concepts of immateriality, the uniqueness of a moment, together with non-repeatability and the personal addressing of the visitor. To this I also added the random choice of a participant in the conversation and my random appearances at the gallery.