P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Conteporary Art & Code: Red

author Tadej Pogačar
written by Mateja Medvedič

photo Dejan Habicht

The Plateau of Humankind, that is, reflections on human existence, to which we are invited by Harald Szeemann, the director of the 49th International Art Exhibition in Venice, has been present in the works of art of the last decade as an aesthetic materialisation or as a revelation of the truth – as the light and the dark side. The 1st World Congress of Sex Workers and New Parasitism is an art project presented by the Slovene artist Tadej Pogačar and the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art. He points his critical sting to the heart of social spuriousness and collective oppression. This project is one of the three selected by Aurora Fonda, the curator and the official representative of the Slovene pavilion in Venice. The P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art has been present in Slovenia and abroad since 1993. It is a virtual, symbolic organism that has used the mechanism of mimicry to assume the appearance and the name of a real art institution, but it has neither office nor staff. It manifests itself as a mobile spiritual creation that, in order to survive according to the principles of parasitism, must deploy particular strategies to conquer new territories and feed on the juices of real institutions. This parallel institution cares less about the production of artworks and their storage than about the stimulation of dynamic relationships and extraordinary circumstances.