Franc Purg

Where is the Line?

performance, 1998

photo: Franc Purg

The original performance was staged at the time of the pre-Christmas and New Year festivities in 1998. A large table heavily laden with food, especially meaty, and with wine was set in the front room, while in the back room stood a wooden box containing a live calf. Visitors gathered around the table and began to eat, drink and chat. I slipped away and changed my clothes. Together with my assistant, a professional butcher, we went to the back room and killed the calf as is practiced in slaughterhouses. Some visitors noticed our departure and followed us to the back room while others continued with the feast. Finally we put the dead animal onto a stretcher and carried it out of the gallery. For the exhibition Continental Breakfast in Belgrade I created a video installation of this project. One projection showed the Škuc Gallery, where the calf was killed. The other showed close-ups of people eating at the opening breakfast outside the 25th May Museum, where the exhibition was staged.

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Franc Purg is an award-winning artist working in the public realm, at the intersections of technology, community and urban sustainability. His socially-engaged work has been exhibited extensively around the world, including Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Moscow, MUMOK, Vienna, and Exit Art New York. He works in collaboration with people from different cultures, ages, and life situations. In 2000 he established the Free Entrance city festival of public arts in Celje, Slovenia. His site-specific installation in the Sibiu, Romania, European Capital of Culture framework involved participatory design with local inhabitants to help better understand the city’s needs. His award-winning work has been exhibited extensively around the world and is held in international public and private collections, including the Georges Pompidou Centre in France, and Moderna galerija, Ljubljana. He won a UNESCO Digital Art Award for his work on community-based sustainability.