Fruition Times Three

7.11.2007 Ljubljana, Slovenija. Trije Janezi Janše pred Etnografskim muzejem Slovenije.FOTO:JURE ERŽEN/Delo

I thought it curious a few weeks ago when I received an email from Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Janša. I was still in California at my mom's house and I didn't have much time to dig through my email. The Captain always jokes that "Slovenia needs me", but an email from the Prime Minister, this just couldn't be....or could it?

I responded to the person telling him I was still in the States but would be back by week's end and should be able to help him. As soon as I got back here to Slovenia , I rechecked my email and and realized it was Janez Janša from Maska, a journal that I do work for. I remember seeing his name listed as Publisher in the previous copy but didn't think much of it. I just thought it was an odd coincidence...

...turns out it wasn't. My emailing Janez Janša is, actually, part of the new (and rather mysterious) art group Janša, Janša, Janša, a group of artists who'd recently changed their names to that of the Prime Minister for reasons which they would not divulge to the public.

So, excited to be part of such an intriguing project, I busily set about doing the work for them at break neck speed. They were under an impending deadline for an end-of-the-month performance at Berlin's Transmediale Festival. Well, I got all the materials to them at the zero hour and they raced over to Berlin where it turned out half of their performance (the Signature performance) had been cancelled for what has been termed "judicial and legal reasons" and "the personal ethical concerns of the curator" (source, in Slovene only). Why the curators waited until the last minute -- when they knew full well what was to go on -- is not known and the artists have called them out onto the floor to give a full explanation.

In the meantime, you can watch the super art-tastic video of the first performance, Signature Art Context, (in which they walk through and create their own signature in the holocaust museum) here.

(Thanks for the tip, Dr. Fil)