Hello Charlie
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- Hello Charlie
- 1998
- silk-screen print on hand-made paper, 4 pieces
- 11,5 × 45,5 cm
In 1997, ŠKART put up makeshift street desks in and around Belgrade and gave away a series of “Additional Survival Coupons”. These were coupons for relaxation, revolution, faith, orgasms, fear, miracles, etc. Passers-by were invited to pick out and take them “according to how they feel”. These coupons were also distributed by mail, and the action was repeated in different locations—including Brooklyn in collaboration with Franklin Furnace Archive. During the second half of the 1990s, ŠKART extended their inquisitive and empathic modus operandi to out-of-context instances that they encountered on their initial travels abroad. While in New York on an Arts Link grant in 1996, they encountered examples of everyday life and types of labor that were unimaginable in the context of their own worldviews and their socialist upbringing. For instance, they met a 38-year-old elevator operator named Charlie who operated the elevator in a New York building. They were perplexed when confronted with someone who spent 8 hours a day going continually up and down inside a small cubicle: “Up and down—that’s my life!” Charlie told them. Unable to fully comprehend this, they produced a Fluxus-like parcel named “Hello Charlie” that they then mailed to him from Serbia. B.D.