THE CATALOG- out now & ready to order!

The catalog about the tour is out now and waiting for you!

To order by mail:

info@johnnyamore.de (from GER) & jussi@tehdasry.fi (from FI)

Pori Art Museum Publications 104

Paperback: 64 pages/ 18x24cm -

ISBN: 978-952-5648-23-2 ISSN: 0359-4327

Languages: Finnish, English,

Publisher: MVET (MRCVE) & Johnny Amore, Pori Art Museum, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences

Price: 15€ (+postage/delivery)

”In our case we can talk about “performance inside the performance” as it makes a critique about the commercialisation of art by doing a work of art. They are asking themselves and the public if performance art can be profitable and they are representing this dilemma in a series of performances.”

- Irene Pascual

In February 2010, the Messianic Research Centre for Visual Ethics (MRCVE) and Johnny Amore conducted in Germany and the Netherlands a series of performances entitled 7 For The Price Of 1. Presented in the form of a shopping trip, the tour travelled from Berlin to Rotterdam, acquiring seven performative actualisations along the way.

Just like the earlier works of MRCVE and Johnny Amore, the project was not merely a series of performances, but an opportunity to collect research data for further refinement and to test in practice the premises raised by theoretical research.

The aim of the performances was to increase the apportioned capital of the project, because the easy market criticism of the economically oriented contemporary reality clearly needed to be complemented with objective research that would give reality an opportunity to argue its logic. Deconstructing trade and the mechanisms of the economy, the project culminated at Pori Art Museum in October 2010, presenting a summary of the results gained with the methods of performative economic research.

In connection with the performance tour the Messianic Research Centre for Visual Ethics (MRCVE) and Johnny Amore published a publication, which has been produced in cooperation with Satakunta University of Applied Sciences/performance studies, Finnish Fund For Art Exchange FRAME and Pori Art Museum.

The publication contains two essays: Irene Pascual, who is a Spanish artist and art historian, followed the tour and in her essay she analyses each performance and it’s results. Finnish performance artist Aapo Korkeoja is writing about the state of the Finnish contemporary art scene, artists’ role in the Finnish contemporary society and the innovative aspect of art. The publication contains an extensive photographic documentation of the performance tour.

Authors:

Irene Pascual – artist and art historian

Aapo Korkeaoja – performance artist, teacher at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences/performance studies (Kankaanpää)

Graphic Design: Thomas Gilke

Photos: Jan Virtanen

Also avaible at: Boekie Woekie/ Amsterdam, Bücherbogen+Motto/ Berlin

Done.

The Trailer

Dividend

All our partners from Berlin are welcome to collect their share on Sunday the 21st february, 20.30 pm at Möbel Olfe. Welcome!

Shipping away

According to Walter Benjamin, mimetic faculty precedes rational ability to distinguish between right or wrong, true or untrue. The mirror stage is a crucial point in the formation of an independent subject, for subject learns to recognise himself or herself from the mirror. However, the Self is a product of misunderstanding: the Ego is displaced into the Imaginary order. Our capacity for reflection prevents us from acting spontaneously.

The way the Self projects its own activity to the external parallels outsourcing at the economic level. In Rotterdam, we placed all our value on a subject in order that it could diverge to an independent actor. The basic material is raised to the level of cultural meanings in this process.

Risk Investment

Kim de Weijer / Performance artist from Amsterdam.

Colognialising Relics

According to the methodological principle of historicism, one is not allowed to project alien principles to foreign cultures or past epochs. Past must be recorded as it really was. Historical relics loose their original contextual connections when they are conservated and carefully preserved into museum. Time is suspended in a museum space. Objects are frozen to an arbitrary point of time. They do not have past or the future anymore. Only present moment, der Augenblick, stays.

Re-De-Construction

We tested the real estate markets in Den Bosch. Because the economic crisis and the prudent economical mentality of Dutch merchants, the markets were much more difficult there than at Frankfurt a.M. We were cautious about the oversupply of houses. Therefore we needed to demolish the house we made, in order to keep prices high.

Castration in Cologne

MRCVE and Johnny Amore visited the carnival in Cologne. Through the carnival, the ordinary world is turned upside-down. Also we acted backwards: instead of selling we were buying things from the audience using our new currency, i.e. potatoes (Kunstkartoffeln). We changed potatoes into objects from the participants of the carnival. Truths and moral patterns are endlessly contested, for all ways to behave demand equal status. In other words, the relativity of all final truths is declared by competing views and the rivaling marginalised voices of oppressed minorities. The hegemony of authorities is made ridiculous.

However, carnivalesque resistance to authorities can not be a potential place for political change. The carnival appears to be revolutionary, but in reality it is conservative. People have possibility to express their feelings and blow off steam, but on the other hand this only strengthens political consensus. After the carnival ends, the world turns back to the right way and everything is unchanged as before.






















The first day of the carnival is Wieverfastelovend (the women's day) when women clip men's ties with scissors. The meaning of this action is to dethrone masculine hegemony. From the Freudian point of view, it is clear that this is connected with penis envy and the fear of castration. In the phallic stage the libido is primarily focused on the genital area. The girl desires a penis, and the power that it represents. The solution is to usurp her father's penis. Castration anxiety (Kastrationsangst) means that boy assumes that the female's penis has been removed. The boy fears that also his penis will be removed. This is exactly what happened to the ties of MRCVE at the carnival.

Real Estate Workshop

Audience was given a change to learn how to make money by working in our house factory and later on buying the houses they made. The workers created more value for us than they received as a wage.

Frankfurt am Main

We arrived at Frankfurt am Main at 5. February. Before that, we introduced ourselves to local customs and manners.

Game Mentality

When people are split into two groups, winners tend to win and losers keep losing. As such, slave morality is characterised by pessimism and scepticism. The of mentality of loser villanises its oppressors, for it is only a reaction to oppression.

Workflow

Investement for Leipzig

Part 1 - Berlin

We refined a work of art from raw material and sold it in an 'All-Pay Auction'. Happy Bruno with his purchase!

The arrival

We arrived yesterday evening at Berlin. First we had a business lunch with the gallerist. We will wait keenly for the first performance.

The Flyer

Made by Gilkistan

The Concept

7 for the Price of 1-Accumulating Value
Performance series in Germany and Netherlands in 2010
by Messianic Research Centre for Visual Ethics [FI] & Johnny Amore [GER]

In 2010, the MRCVE Artists Group and the German artist Johnny Amore will travel through Central Europe from Berlin to the shores of the North Sea in Rotterdam, and do seven public performances. The tour is an allegory of a traditional trade journey, in which inland's commodities find their way to export ports in the coast. Film director Lassi Markus King will be filming the performances and the mishaps of tour life. The project has received funding for the script of the documentary from the Finnish Film Foundation. Later on, the film will be screened at various short film festivals in Finland and abroad, and at other venues.Performance series in German and Holland in 2010

Experimental Economics

The era of polarization is over. Though the relationship between cultural and economic life is sometimes troubled, the series of performances will show that even art can be profitable. Every society is founded on trade, and the exchange of goods also creates the basis for cultural exchange. MRCVE will be testing the plausibility of Economics in practice, without committing ourselves on economic policies. During our performances we will sell previously obtained goods and buy new ones with the profits. The artistic merit of the project comes from the fact that it raises questions about trade's wider social meanings and its effects at grassroots.

Realisation

Each performance will focus on a product on sale; the product will be given new meanings, and its value will be redefined. The artistic process leaves its mark on the product and makes its special. The project starts in Berlin when, at our first performance, we will sell a product brought from Finland. The profit of the sale price will be used to buy a product or products to be used in the following performance. At the end of each peformance, the value of the product will be realised and the earnings will be invested as profitably as possible. The tour will travel through old German trade centres, paying tribute to the European market tradition. Our aim is to prove that it is possible to increase one's initial capital by trade.

The Executive Board

Mr. Simo Saarikoski


















Mr. Janne Rahkila



















Mr. Johnny Amore


















Mr. Asko Nivala





















Mr. Jussi Matilainen



Pictures by Jan Virtanen