Sadness
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- Sadness
- 1992/93
- 32 poetry-cards in a canvas bag, 3 photo stripes
- 24,2 × 21 cm
In January 1993, ŠKART set about realizing their most widely known work of the 1990s. It consisted of short and simple poems about a certain type of sadness that were printed on thick, hand-sized pieces of cardboard, each stamped as the “Product of ŠKART” in an edition called “Nothing Required at the Outset”. These cards were distributed to certain “target groups”, each with its particular variety of sadness, in a series of public actions in Belgrade. The initial action took place in front of a major department store where pieces of cardboard bearing the words “The Sadness of Potential Consumers” were handed out. During the following week, the distribution of “The Sadness of Potential Travelers” was organized at the railway station. The “Sadness of Potential Vegetables” was handed out at the green market and “The Sadness of Potential Pan” to children in a park, and “The Sadness of Potential Return” was mailed out to friends who had emigrated. “The Sadness of Potential Rifles” was put in packages with humanitarian aid sent to Bosnia, and “The Sadness of Potential Childbirth” was distributed by a pregnant friend. “The Sadness of Potential Tenants” practically distributed itself: the predicaments involved in finding any sort of low-priced housing included bizarre anecdotes about landladies that were then described in a testimonial letter to Walter Benjamin printed on a long sheet of paper in April 1994. B.D.