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ARTIFICIAL QUEUE

social sculpture / video / 9′ 00”
in collaboration with Andra Aaloe, Aet Ader, Grete Soosalu

The project „It is a piece of cake to assemble a queue!” invited people to form a queue in front of Tallinn Art Hall by promising the first one hundred participants 100 kroons (i.e 6,6 €). The event had a good turn out and on that day the local media was flooded with images of people queuing in front of an art institution – a symbolic image that had not been seen for ages.

This project deals with the theme of economical crisis new to Estonian art. With the downfall of economy the idea of social justice has become a central topic of public discussion and the economic uncertainty has made people long for things they have been deprived of in real life. There are no political statements in this work and instead of authoritarian position of a critic we are presented with a project based on social interaction.

For active participation of the public and constructing their story the organising team use a very well know symbolic signifier – the queue. It is a symbol that stems from the socialist past, but stands also for capitalism, because the disappearance of queues has come to represent for the neoliberal coalition also the new form of government.

When the artists concentrate on portraying the current social situation by creating this grotesque social sculpture, they emphasise the importance of communication and interaction with the target group of people in need. People do not queue unless there is a reason and in addition to the 100 kr bonus, people who wish so can discuss what they are going through and by doing so give a new dimension to the relations of art, exhibition space and the public.

Provocations and confrontations: a perspective on contemporary Estonian art.
10.12.2010 – 27.02.2011, National Museum in Szczecin, Poland. Exhibition catalogue