++++ Contemporary eastern European art — that was the drawcard for the nomadic biennials in previous Manifestas. The web collective, Apsolutno, engages with the phenomenon that the integration of contemporary eastern European art into Western perception depends strongly on the West's willingness.
The four-member team consisting of Zoran Pantelic, Dragan Rakic, Bojana Petric and Dragen Miletic was founded in 1993 in Novi Sad in Yugoslavia. They developed the Web project, The Absolute Sale, for Manifesta 4.
The work simulates an auction on the internet. Each visitor to the web site takes on the role of a potential buyer. Under the banner of epay, east European countries can be selected from which various artists offer their art works. For instance, a Cyrillic conceptual work by a ballet dancer from Brest who is HIV-positive can be viewed, reserved and bid for.
Unfortunately, the final sale, whose modalities are very simple and which can be done without entering a credit card number or performing any other rigours of internet trade, is postponed again and again and finally never takes place.
The Absolute Sale is supposed to provide an ironic view of eastern European artists on the western art market. The idea of stringing someone along and postponing recalls not just by coincidence the attempts at integrating eastern European countries into the European Union. Apsolutno applies the political situation to that of the artist on the free market.
And the collective poses questions concerning one’s conception of oneself and the image of others. How is Europe defined politically and culturally? What is the interconnection between geographic and mental positions? Depending on the perspective you adopt, the borders and perception of this simultaneously united and divided construct called Europe shift.
Terminal at Frankensteiner Hof, Große Rittergasse 103, until 25 August. On the internet at www.absolute-sale.com. hoh