after Mladen Stilinović and Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, 2021

acrylic on artificial silk, 153 x 253 cm

In his first remake, “in the hands of Ana Šeba”, after the Croatian conceptual artist Mladen Stilinović, Vlad Brăteanu comments on the value of contemporary artists as increasingly service providers.

His second remake, “An Artist Who Cannot Get Funding Is No Artist”, sets a dialogue with artists Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan’s 2015 dictum, “An Artist Who Cannot Network Is No Artist”. Institutional validation is a poignant subject at stake in both. Through the three messages written on pink flags that remind of protest banners, a systemic shift occurred. Stemming from an internal and personal struggle to learn English as a former Yugoslavian artist situated at the periphery, continuing with the ability to network, and rounding it up with the invisible power networks that one blindly needs to tap themselves in.

Production conditions in the art field are determined by geopolitical and macroeconomic dynamics. Concomitantly, production is also related to the privilege of getting funding and hence the ability to continue working as an artist. Not only is networking a prerequisite to success in the contemporary art landscape, but also the skill to get funding. The unpaid application process in which one attempts to fit in the requirements has become a routine action. Criteria for successful applications are reversed and enigmatic, nonetheless, thank you for your application!

                                                                                                                             Text by Cristina Vasilescu

public intervention on Dudenstrasse 15 , Berlin, June 2021