Romanian Trick, 2008

Romanian Trick is a performance, which has a further purpose as means to collect works of art. Central to the work is a simple trick that the artist bought from a Romanian custom officer, who taught him how to separate the ring from the inner part of one- or two-euro coins, using only one hand. The cost of learning the trick was 5 euros and the man sold it to the artist under the condition that he will charge the same amount for sharing the secret further. The artist followed the rule and even increased the value of the trick by turning it into a work of art  – a performance that is presented also as video documentation, certificate and an object (a pile of separated coins). In exchange for giving the “know-how” – namely performing the trick and/or exhibiting the documentation - the artist negotiates with the hosting institution a sum of money, which he uses to buy artworks for his personal collection. The first work collected in this manner was of Maria Lindberg. Currently in the artist’s collection are also works by Alexander Brenner and Barbara Schurz, Italo Zuffi, Olaf Nicolai and others.