ECONOMIC DEPRESSIVE EPISODE I:
MEDIATED PRESENCE

(2017) PERFORMANCE, VIDEO
By mimicking the aesthetics of the web-cam sex chats, Yurkova touches on sensitive questions of an artist's position in a system of money relations and highlights the question of artist's labor, its marginal cost in a proportion of man-hour and product.
It's been a while since I've been having a text on my website "Represented by Fotodepartament", legitimizing financial relations between me and my gallery. One's expectations do not always coincide with reality, an issue thoroughly scrutinized by visual art. My institutionally addressed performance was dedicated to a quiet Lacanian question: do financial relations exist? (il n'y a pas de rapport financier).
I touched on sensitive questions of an artist's built-in system of social and power relations; questions of the artist's body as a subject of biological needs and as a medium and object of artistic study; and the main – the question of artist's labour, its marginal cost in a proportion of man-hour and product.
Using a group video chat broadcasted in a gallery space as well as to the Internet, for 4 hours an audience got a chance to work me a task, which I complied with right away after the means dropped to my account. I was physically present in my studio in Finland, virtually – in a gallery space where the Presence Festival took place; as well as in the group chat available from anywhere. One could connect by sending me an email in advance or do it anonymously using a straight link. All the tasks were given through a chat window and were provided with timing. A minimal cost of one minute was 2 Euros. In 4 hours I earned 36 Euros. Necessary to mention, more than half of the tasks were given from a gallery space, to enter which people paid a fee (7-17 Euros).