In her reinterpretation of an “art salon“ of the late 19th century Kristina Leko presents paintings and furniture from private art collections together with pieces created by unemployed people, who participated in a painting course she taught. The work of the Croatian multimedia and concept artist is characterized by the common use of cultural resources to facilitate interaction between different social groups.

Different people were invited to participate in her “social experiment with ethical and aesthetic consequences“ (Leko), including members of the Friends of the Secession and participants of the Volkshilfe Beschäftigung.

Together with the Volkshilfe Beschäftigung Kristina Leko organized a two-week workshop on portrait drawing in Vienna in March 2006. As an artist her goal was to support each participant in producing an artwork. Leko’s initiative is a further development of a project she did in Halle with the title Jede/r Mensch ist entweder eine Künstlerin oder ein Künstler, Beweis Nr. 3, 2005 (Everyone is An Artist, Proof No. 3, 2005). She also organized workshops in which the participants created large-format portraits. Leko refers to the demands made by artists such Joseph Beuys since the 1960s for a broad participation in cultural processes, exploring the social role of art. Leko sees art as a possible form of social commitment, as an instrument that can be used to help marginalized groups make their situation visible.

Was soll ich tun? (What should I do?) The motif of the poster for the exhibition are the Zwölf Grundregeln einer Ethik für Künstler/innen (Twelve Basic Rules of an Ethic for Artists) developed by Kristina Leko, in which she also calls for cultural democracy and unlimited use of sites for public events. Leko goes on to address the social potential of art which is capable of “bringing about a change in relations and perception.“ Here Leko is just as interested in the process as in the product.