Chat with Anita Sarosi
March 16, 2004„…BUT RATHER SOMETHING DIFFERENT”
Nikolett Eross: You often disappear for some time, to come up with something new again…
Anita Sarosi: Yes, I am not the type of artist who pours out artworks. I only work when I have something to say. The topics may vary. What really counts is that I have a problem or a situation that intrigues or seizes me, and doesn’t let me go. Usually, it takes an indefinite span of time, a long period of preparation to articulate the process of thinking, reconsideration and experimentation – both in the theoretical and the practical sense – plus the time spent obtaining the necessary tools. (Actually, I had had no technological pool from which to draw up until last year. Before that, I had always been dependent on some institutional background in creating electronic artworks. Now I have a computer and a camera.) In certain cases, such as the Shop Window, the working process also included the organisation of the venues (the shop window and the server). When everything comes together, then the realisation itself can begin. The Shop Window is a special case, as it was an ambitious undertaking, involving the creation of installations for 12 shop windows over a year, as well as the creation of 12 web materials for each of the shop windows, all of them functioning independently. It required a lot of work and energy. At the same time, it has turned out to be the most fruitful period of work for me so far.
Nikolett Eross: The Shop Window CD-ROM has come out, which most certainly means the closure of the Shop Window project.
Anita Sarosi: The Shop Window Gallery functioned for two and a half years, within which our collaborative artwork with Beatrix Szörényi lasted for precisely twelve months. Each month one of us made a new shop window, with a new addition to the web site in each case. When we started the project, we were unable to foresee how long it would last, as we were already aware that this shop, together with its shop window, would be sold. Every 2 or 3 months, our agreement had to be renegotiated with the proprietor so that we could continue to use the shop window. Seeing that we had managed to complete our one-year project, and we still had use of the window, we started operating it as a gallery. We provided everybody with the opportunity to make an exhibition, without any constrictions or technical limitations, and of course, without any financial support. The whole project, which ran for two and a half years, was made possible without any outside support.
What I found interesting, however, was that none of the exhibitors took advantage of the existing web site to freely do whatever they (would have) wanted to do, that is, to use another type of window as well.
Nikolett Eross: Did your own series of exhibitions also have some continuity in terms of its content? I mean, did you have a preliminary concept to which the exhibitions related, or was it the venue itself that was the core concept?
We had set themes for ourselves according to the given season; for example, adjusting them to the light and shade ratio of the month and to the activities and topics that could be associated with it. We did not conceive this as a form of restriction, but rather as a point of departure. In the meantime, however, we noticed that it was as if we were furnishing different rooms in the shop window. In a spontaneous way, it came about as if we had opened up different rooms of a house toward the street; letting passers-by in the street have a glance into the living spaces of non-existent dwellers. After we became aware of it, we started to deliberately create newer and newer rooms, which with the exception of the bathroom, showed people around in the house from the kitchen to the garage. We even constructed a bar in the shop window, which opened from the front of the house. The floor plan of the house we “constructed”, served as a site map to the web site, from where you could directly access the pages belonging to the given rooms.
Nikolett Eross: What sort of audience did the shop window attract, or rather, what feedback did you receive?
Anita Sarosi: Right form the very start we were excited about the sort of reactions we would get from people in the street. We even put them up on the web site. People shared their opinions with us personally and by e-mail. The URL of the project was also placed in the shop window. Obviously, the most direct responses came from the residents of the house, and actually only few of them were positive reactions; they were mostly irritated by it all. They did not appreciate strangers standing in front of their house and our incessant constructing, coming and going. It was much better for them when there was nothing there at all, that is, when the shop window had been empty for almost eleven years. Not to mention that the art they were offered was not the sort of aesthetising and easily understandable art form that they could enjoy. The dialogues expressing their views can be read on the Shop Window web site. We, however, received a lot of positive feedback from the people who just happened to be passing by. Somebody living in the house opposite the shop window was always checking to see whether there was an opening, and on such occasions he dropped in, presenting us with a bottle of champagne.
Nikolett Eross: Did the openings attract a coincidental or a regular audience?
Anita Sarosi: On each occasion within our own project, we shifted the time of the openings by two hours, trying to follow the full cycle of a day, in the same way as the project followed the seasons of the year. Thus, sometimes we opened the exhibition at daybreak, and at other times at night. If it was 4 o ’clock in the morning, we offered the visitors coffee with cognac...
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