Zavod Sploh
Tomaž Grom, Špela Trošt: I Dream, Therefore I WorkUpcomingArchivePhotography

Tomaž Grom, Špela Trošt: I Dream, Therefore I Work

photo: Nada Žgank
photo: Nada Žgank
Performance
Work of the opus Let’s Work! (2022–2023) by Loup Abramovici, Tomaž Grom, Teja Reba, Špela Trošt

Concept: Tomaž Grom, Špela Trošt
Performer: Tomaž Grom
Text: Špela Trošt in Tomaž Grom

Production: Teja Reba 
Coproduction: Sploh Institute
Partner: Bunker Institute, within the European project Stronger Peripheries: Southern Coalitions
Financial support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia


10. 2. 2022, Stara Elektrarna (Old Power Station), Ljubljana


Work is a way to integrate my surroundings into my life.
Happiness is when I experience my life as part of my work.
Work is an escape from happiness.
Happiness is work.
Work is a way of life.
Happiness is when I include my family in my work.
Work is the time when I need to find happiness in my life.
Happiness is when I find life in my work.
Work is happiness.
Happiness is when I lose myself in my work.
Work is when I don’t find happiness.
Happiness is when I dream while I work.
Work is when I have to wake up from a surprise that brings happiness.
Happiness is when I find surprise in my work.

Genesis:
We submit Tomaž Grom’s idea to the Bunker Institute Work and Happiness call for proposals. We force him to formulate his thoughts. He takes a step back and writes down fourteen sentences, and in one of them he writes I dream.

He is not selected.
 
But the strongly personal rejection flatters. When he realizes that Loup Abramovici received the same rejection in his inbox, the flattery fades and the intensely personal evaporates. But Tomaž and Loup are together by chance again.
 
To Work! starts on its own.  The meaning is created by Teja Reba and Špela Trošt.
Meanwhile Tomaž continues to dream. He dreams of selling a vinyl recording of his farts for €50. He dreams of selling his music. He dreams of selling his work. He dreams of selling his life. He dreams of selling himself.

Let’s Work! (20222023) deals with the problem of work. It invites us, through various artistic situations set in specific environments, to reflect on the meaning and value of work, the ways in which we experience work in everyday life, and how art is at work. In the first chapter (2022), artworks are contextualized in locations that play a constructive role in society in terms of the formulation of labor policies, and more specifically the formulation of strategies in the field of cultural labor, in public services that respond to labor problems, in institutions that educate the upcoming workforce, and in spaces that play a role in contemporary art practices. The spatial and temporal positioning of works for (re)viewing by both institutional staff and invited and casual visitors aims to widen the field of visibility of the artwork and its reception. In the second chapter (2023), the artworks will be presented in their entirety in exhibition and performance formats.

19.11.2022

Let's Work! #4: Self-portrait | Loup Abramovici, Tomaž Grom, Teja Reba in Špela Trošt | MSUM

19. 11. 2022, 10h–18h, MSUM
Loup Abramovici, Tomaž Grom, Teja Reba in Špela Trošt

Self-Portrait
Installation in the public space

Part of the opus Let’s Work!

Self-Portrait, precariously positioned between inside and outside, questions where art is at work, and, at the same time, announces its own position as something in-between: the installation being the inauguration of a larger project the chapters of which take place in locations other than the museum. Self-Portrait is displaced in space and time, and as such evades an immediate conclusion or goal, satisfaction or understanding. Nevertheless, in its concreteness, it invites us to see another exhibition, Art at Work, in order to get to know artists who, like us, think about work and thus recognize the collective to which we belong and which belongs to us.
The installation intervenes in the movement on the museum square. It is necessary to react to the new organization of movement in the public space, ¬by making a different decision, by paying attention, or observing the situation. Some will step into/on the artwork, others will add to the work as they pass, possibly stopping or making deviations around it. Thus each reader/viewer/connoisseur/ consumer of art completes it, interprets it.
The intervention in the public space acts as both incision and invitation, exposing both the potentiality and the emptiness of the artistic gesture. It alludes to the absence of an audience and the wider problem of disinterest in (contemporary) art in Slovenia, which may be the result of misguided public policies or simply of the smallness and provinciality of the country.

So who then is depicted in this Self-Portrait?

Authors: Loup Abramovici, Tomaž Grom, Teja Reba, Špela Trošt
Production: Teja Reba
Coproduction: Zavod Sploh
Partner: Moderna galerija
Financial support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

Let’s Work! (2022-2023) deals with the problem of work. It invites us, through various artistic situations set in specific environments, to reflect on the meaning and value of work, the ways in which we experience work in everyday life, and how art is at work. In the first chapter (2022), artworks are contextualized in locations that play a constructive role in society in terms of the formulation of labor policies, and more specifically the formulation of strategies in the field of cultural labor, in public services that respond to labor problems, in institutions that educate the upcoming workforce, and in spaces that play a role in contemporary art practices. The spatial and temporal positioning of works for (re)viewing by both institutional staff and invited and casual visitors aims to widen the field of visibility of the artwork and its reception. In the second chapter (2023), the artworks will be presented in their entirety in exhibition and performance formats.

Previous events:
I Dream, Therefore I Work
I Don’t Work, I Practice Collectivity
Free Time

Upcoming events:
Warming Up
Happiness at Work
636,78

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