In the desire to make art accessible to those who do not have the money and those who hesitate in discovering new things (such as abstract contemporary dance) I launched the initiative “Arts Available to Everyone” during the premiere of my production and co-authorship performance ‘Intensity’.
Therefore on the ‘Intensity’ tickets the following was written:
TICKETS are paid for after watching the show, the audience determines the price individually, in accordance with their own living standard and satisfaction with a watched performance.
- art must be accessible to everyone regardless of financial possibilities
- how can the artist determine the price for the artwork
- the audience deserves to see what they are buying
- there is no discount for marginalized groups – everyone determines the price of their own ticket
Next to the empty price field, there was a note that visitors enter the price at the exit of the show and pay the ticket at the price they had personally selected.
At the exit, there was a box called KARTOMAT, and the thing functioned neatly, the visitors came out standing in line, taking pencils, writing down value and paying tickets.
The “Arts Available to Everyone ” initiative supporters:
Bacači sjenki
Domino Association with Sounded Bodies Festival and the Perforation Festival
Trećeprostor
Why all the effort?
By charging tickets after the performance, I want to:
– enable people who do not have money to come and see the show
– avoid visitors labeling themselves as unemployed, disabled, retired or aliens in order to get the usual discount
– encourage people who are skeptical and hesitate to visit a contemporary art performances to come without thinking they will be overcharged, and estimate their satisfaction on their way out. Allowing that, a place for a new audience is opening, which is always precious.
– to avoid putting a price on my artistic work.
I do not want angry viewers
In fact, my most important goal is:
– that people learn to be fair after watching the work and to set their individual price and satisfaction considering their own living standard. Not like in the institutional theaters with huge budgets (compared to mine) where we go to the show and pay the 60-120kn ticket and come out with bad impressions, angry with the wrong choice we made, time spent and money thrown, or we go out and enjoy good performances, so we think ‘this was worth every penny and more.’
What would the visitors conclude about my show or me, that the price was 15kn (in order to be accessible to everyone) or 350kn (to cover my production costs)? In the first case, many would not come because they would think it was cheap (= bad?), and in the second case audience would not come because they would think it was overpriced (= bad?).
Art must be accessible to anyone who has the need to engage with it
We must never fully rely on state and city budgets for culture. In case when the artist’s work is not supported by the state, the real artist should not give up. Artistic beginners, unestablished authors and performers should also have the opportunity to accomplish artistic achievement. In the flood of commercial entertainment, art should not be extinguished. The message “Art must be accessible to everyone” is not only for the public audience without money, but also for authors who have a need to deal with art without having to finance it. Everyone has the right to watch art and everyone has the right to engage with it. Money can’t be the reason for making a decision and choice. I hope that the audience can also share sensibility and when it is possible financially support the authors and the event.
Art should not have a price tag, it is as if we place a numerical value in decimals in the religious content
Production of artwork has its price. Money is paid for commodities, props, costumes and similar. But how to evaluate financially what do I have in myself, with which I had been born and have deposited through my life and say: ‘to look at it, it costs so and so, if you have enough money, here you are!’
The arrogant artist
I see art as a new religion, a new path, or a continuation of the development path for the minds that overrun everything that their religious self-sufficient content offers on the spiritual path. I do not mean passive entertainment, show, games from the usual comfortable armchair of thoughts in which the audience wants to laugh and escape from the reality and the truth. I refer to the right (deep or high) art that cannot be learned. The one born of the transcendental plunging of artists into the process of creation. Those acts that brings something new, that make a shift in the viewer’s mind, how to evaluate them? It is as if we are putting the price on spiritual content in the Church. We do not want that, do we? Not me!
And this is the art I want to create and I want an audience that will, accordingly to their point of view, give me a feedback, roughly speaking, reward me or punish me financially so I can receive a message did i succeed or fail to touch or to move them.
Yeah, I’m strict about myself in that sense. I want to know, feel financially, if you sit on my show IN VAIN and if that was not something that sprang, awakened, tangled or shifted you from the usual course of thoughts, attitudes, emotions.
I HOPE TO SEE YOU.
Pay your ticket after you’ve seen the performance, depending on your living standard and satisfaction with a watched performance. The only two components acquired.
😉