Dovrat ana Meron, The Nature of a Red Dot, 2009

The Nature of a Red Dot by Dovrat ana Meron from artemisiaeu on Vimeo.

Performance pieces are Israeli-born Dovrat ana Meron’s expertise. Having studied acting teaching and theatre directing in Tel Aviv, the draw to performance art is great. Also, Meron received her Masters at the WeiBensee Art School (Berlin) in “Space Strategies.” In her artist statement she claims, “My major present interest is the complexity between Live performance Art and commodity, performance in public spaces, Institution citric and the invasion of political interests to the arts and the influence that Politic has on the arts” signifying her involvement in site-specific and public interventions and performances. Although she is based in Berlin, her heritage is one of Israeli descent and Jewish faith which sometimes takes effect on her pieces.

In her performance, The Nature of a Red Dot (2009) performed at the 53rd Art Biennale in Venice, Meron creatively comments on the ambiguities and complexities in selling and purchasing art (the symbol of the red dot indicating a sold piece of art). Meron has performed this piece in numerous museums, art fairs and galleries in order to place herself, her performance, in the center of the business art world—the physical place where the art is bought and sold. In this performance, Meron herself is the performer and is dressed in a vinyl-like cherry red dress with a titled flat round red circle atop her head, obviously representing the dot. Throughout the performance she cuts out red dots from her dress and attaches them to different viewers of the audience, as the audience also becomes the “sold” piece of art. Then, she proceeds to ask the audience questions such as, “How much do you think this red dot costs? the dress? me? Do you want to buy me with the dress? Will the price of the dress rise after I die? I am a limited edition. Am I now? Are you now? I am an open edition. Did you film that? THAT NOW?” Herself, her performance, is layered with irony in that she is performing an art piece that cannot necessarily get sold, but is still very much a part of the business art world. Because Meron is the symbol, the red dot, her performance piece is making a statement against the odd nature of how we sell and buy art so business-like, so temporal-like. Her performance only lasts as long as that performance lasts, so she is also commenting on how odd it is that quality and value of art is based on how long a piece lasts, how long a piece stands time.

Although this piece is not directly with all public, those that enter the museum are effected, The Nature of a Red Dot performance brings the secret business side of the art world to a public setting, moreso the gallery itself: the place where the public and the art meet. At the end of the performance, Meron takes a needle and pricks her finger then proceeds to go up to the etiquette with her name and the name of the performance, and stamps the etiquette with her blood—the blood that makes the performance, herself. Is Meron attempting to comment on how artists sell themselves into this art business that so often corrupts the pure motivation and inspiration of artists? Because she ironically buys her own piece in a sense, the contemporaneity of the piece will last. The audience, the public, becomes a part of this piece by not only being sold as pieces of “art work” as well, but as witnesses to this interesting and layered performance.