Babić, Milijana: Waitressing

Babić, Milijana: Waitressing

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Title Waitressing
Type Contemporary art practice, Video, Performance, Project, Public art, Documentary video, Multichannel video, Action, Durational performance, Public intervention, Ongoing project
Date 2011 – 2012
City of production Rijeka, Croatia
Co-production Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka
Language Croatian
Format 1920x1080 pxl
Duration 05' 20"
URL http://www.cityofwomen.org/en/content/2013/project/looking-work
Registration number CoW-2011-VID-802
Number of works in a group 7

Synopsis

The video is a documentation of a year-and-a-half-long action of looking for work, evolving around an ad stating: Visual artist urgently looking for any kind of work, which was published continuously in local advertising publications. While responses to the ad came mainly from men offering suspicious work such as massage, accompaniment on travels, nude photography, “performances” in night bars..., the project also developed through researching job columns with an aim of undergoing the experience of work.

 

During the project, the artist worked as a cleaner, a waitress, a vendor, a distributor... In all cases, apart from the work found “through a connection”, she was underpaid and treated as a person of lower rank. Apart from dealing with the research into the labour market in a time of the highest unemployment rate in Croatia, the project Looking For Work questions the status of contemporary artists in Croatian society and insufficiency of the artistic profession to support oneself financially.

 

The conditions in which (not only) Croatian visual artists work are cheap production, unpaid work, a non-existent contemporary art market and a lack of systematic promotion on an international level. Survival within the profession is possible only with external sources of income.

Artist's statement

At a local bar visited mostly by men I didn’t do very well. At one point I was insulted and provoked to the point of crying. My boss told me that at this job you eventually gain thicker skin.

Source: Milijana Babić

Sodelujejo

Recording / camera Mirna Kutleša
Editing (film, video) Sanjin Stanić

Artist, artistic group

Group of artworks

Babić Milijana, Cleaning, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 12' 31"
Babić Milijana, Distribution of Advertising Material, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 09' 16"
Babić Milijana, Exhibition Guarding, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 11' 45"
Babić Milijana, Irons Promotion, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 04' 58"
Babić Milijana, Rose Selling, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 04' 30"
Babić Milijana, Waitressing, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 05' 20"
Babić Milijana, Working at a Shop, Rijeka, 2011 – 2012, 04' 01"

Subworks

Co-production

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka