Readers Theater Project

Insurance Readers Theater Project 

Instructions

 

Take definitions of standard terms of an insurance contract as description of roles in a theater play, assign each person a role;

Take the insurance contract as a theatre play script (and furthermore, as voices*), each person reads in sequence the relevant parts where his or her assigned role is concerned. 

 

* According to Franco Berardi, the only way to overcome the problem of stagnated sociality symptomatic of financial capitalism is by poetry and voice. Poetry, ‘the excess of sensuousness’, can ‘[reactivate] the emotional body, and therefore [reactivate] social solidarity’ whilst voice ‘cannot be reduced to the operational function of language.’ (requoted from Daniel Hartley) 

 

Please contact the author for a sample of insurance contract/script, or feel free to use your own contracts. 

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On sale, or better, to be insured?

photo by author

 

Between May 1 and June 8, Storefront for Art and Architecture puts itself on sale: this is of course part of an exhibition, which is about real and immaterial properties that are open to be purchased for monetary returns. It also offered the chance to Shut Up Storefront – literally, by purchasing the otherwise opening hours. 

This attempt reveals what is at play between higher financial players (private and institutional donors) and non-profit art/architecture institutions, but also the perceived added value of the institution itself (imagine a Storefront director’s chair being sold at USD 200, while the air in between panels at USD 1,000.)

Inspired by Storefront, here is another proposal for consideration: a non-profit institution is to offer the public shares of the insurance (be it for real property or fictional property) of the institution, i.e. the public is to donate (and potentially be the beneficiary of, if calculated out well,) the insurance of exhibition/office/public space/blogsphere/creativity/etc. to the institution.

This is not funny

One artist recently revealed that the only time in her artistic career she earned money with her art was from the insurance – a child broke her work and the gallery, luckily, had it insured. Alas. 

 

To this artist I am greatly indebted for my idea on a research of art and insurance.