3 February at 7PM
Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
NAME Readymade

Performative Presentation

Art Laboratory Berlin is glad to invite you to NAME Readymade, the performative presentation of Janez Janša. The event will present the act of "name changing" perpetrated by three Slovenian artists who in 2007 officially, with all the required papers and stamps, changed their names to the then prime minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša (2004-08). All Janez Jansas' works, their private and public affairs, in a word their whole life, has been conducted under this name ever since.

"When the three artists changed their names to Janez Janša, they in fact adopted a critical stand to the state. To the Slovene government, in which until recently all posts seemed occupied as it were by a single person - Janez Janša. [...] Through the multiplication of Janez Janša's name, the function of the prime minister has assumed, within this specific artistic action, a similar position as the Campbell soup cans in Andy Warhol's works." (Zdenka Badovinac, Name Readymade, October 2008)

Janez Janša will take us through a series of artistic, political, administrative and media oriented actions performed by himself together with Janez Janša and Janez Janša, with a particular focus on their latest personal exhibition entitled NAME Readymade. Works exhibited in this show (valid ID cards, passports, credit and bank cards, driving licences, birth and marriage certificates, and so on) were generated by reality itself.

Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša cut right through the midst of their own realities, using procedures typical for art - transformation, translation, representation and mimicry. They turned around the classical relational scheme between art and life as it was developed in the 20th century. Art in the previous century was defined by way of reality entering into artistic contexts without mediation (Badiou defines the 20th century as the 'passion for the real'), while Janša, Janša and Janša want to achieve the opposite, so that their methods cut deeply into their material lives and the lives of their immediate surroundings.

More information: Readymade - THE EXHIBITION, www.aksioma.org/name

Production
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art and the Steirischer Herbst Festival in collaboration with Maska and Moderna galerijy Ljubljana.

With support by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana