Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
The triptych All About You is a specific kind of ready-made that brings up several social and subject/object relations, such as money circulation, artwork status, identification and citizenship. We could say it represents a “self-portrait as a citizen” with the Republic of Slovenia used as a mirror.
In May 2013, the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and MasterCard announced as part of a pilot program the rollout of 13 million MasterCard-branded National Identity Smart Cards with electronic payment capability: the new multipurpose identity card which had 13 applications including MasterCard’s prepaid payment technology. The enrolment process involved the recording of an individual’s demographic data and biometric data, which would provide the basis for a “National Identity Database.”
Around the same time, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) announced the “All About U” Debit MasterCard: a personalized debit card which allows Customers to carry around their fond memories while using their Debit Cards. Deputy UBA Managing Director Mr. Kennedy
In February 2015, borrowing the title from the name of the UBA debit card, the three Slovenian artists Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša started All About You, a project that takes advantage of the personalized card service offered by their bank: Nova Ljubljanska Banka. Each of them magnified the image of his ID card tenfold, then partitioned it into a hundred equal parts, and finally started applying for a new personalized Visa®, Maestro® and MasterCard® every week.
Each request was subjected to the scrutiny of the bank's employees who could accept or deny the submitted image in accordance with what is stated in the bank's image guidelines. This turned the production into a time-based relational performance where the relation between the artist and the producer coincided with the relation between the bank's customer and his bank.
At the opening the philosopher and sociologist Lev Kreft will contextualize the project in a short and sharp lecture entitled Manifold Triptych.
In 2007, three Slovenian artists legally changed their names to that of the then Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša. For Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša, life, artistic practice, theoretical reflection and political involvement are not divided. For almost 10 years now, through their work, they have been building a complex narrative structure on topics such as proper names, identity and the signature, particularly focusing on the legal aspect of art practices and on the political imaginary in law. The central
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Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana & Museum & Galleries of LjubljanaExecutive producer: Marcela OkretičExhibition curator: Alenka TrebušakArtists: Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez JanšaText: AksiomaDesign: Ajdin BašićPhotography: Andrej PeunikRealisation of the exhibition: Technical Service MGMLThe exhibition was made possible by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia & Municipality of Ljubljana, Department for Culture
Location
Tobačna ulica 1
1000 Ljubljana
Information and reservations:
T +386 1 24 12 500
T +386 1 24 12 506
E prijava@mgml.si
Opening hours
Exhibition space is open according to exhibitions:
Tuesday–Friday: 11:00–19:00
Monday, Saturday, Sunday: Closed
Tickets
Free entry.
News
“The artists that in 2007 renamed themselves to Janez Janša established their own name as a work of art. Even more precisely, the gesture of renaming became a work of art. By doing so, they opened up numerous questions: what is the relationship of the name to its subject and what is the relationship of the state to its subjects, principally how authority identifies its taxpayers and subjects of rights. The social, political, legal and philosophical implications of a person’s name were also the topics of the 2012 documentary "My Name is Janez Janša.”