This work is concerned with the found, fictional or factual narratives around art objects. Taking the form of a classical art auction - as opposed to a conventional art piece - a story about a particular artwork is sold to willing bidders, word by word, before it is told as part of a narrative whole. The audience in attendance blindly shapes the tale, through the frame of their own consuming desires, in advance of the story being spilled. As a result, the work of art is not owned by one, but several persons.
"Tell/Sell, a common story" is a performance work created in collaboration with Esther Mugambi, which was originally commissioned by Ellen de Bruijne Projects in the frame of their Performance Programme in early 2014.
The work was selected to be part of the curatorial programme’s final show "Father, can't you see I'm burning" at de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam in 2014.
More auctions were held at: ISELP Brussels (as part of the exhibition # INSTITUT: Table of Content, 2017), Rozenstraat Amsterdam (2017), Bunkier Sztuki Cracow (as part of the exhibition “The Trouble with Value’, curated by Kris Dittel and Kzrysztof Siatka, 2018) and the Akademie der Kunste der Welt, Cologne (as part of Rethinking Locality, curated by Aneta Rostkowska, 2018)
Concept, development, stories:
Sarah van Lamsweerde
Co-creation and performance:
Esther Mugambi
Thanks to:
Dorothé Orczyk, Angela Lidderdale, Zhana Ivanova and Frides Laméris Art and Antiques.
Unsold Stories:
View PDF here
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