VIRUS

Virus rende concreti e visibili, in maniera provocatoria e ironica, i meccanismi sociali e individuali della bulimia dell'acquisto, che si avverte non solo nel mondo dell'arte ma anche nella vita quotidiana.
La performance di Liuba, che nell'inaugurazione di Artefiera ha infettato con miriadi di bollini rossi le opere esposte, ha destabilizzato il sistema creando confusione tra i lavori venduti e non, ironizzando sul rapporto tra valore commerciale e valore artistico dell'opera.
Il virus si diffonde in maniera esponenziale divenendo il protagonista unico e incontrastato, dove non è più importante la qualità ma la quantità, non cosa si compra ma quanto si possiede.

La stessa performance, fatta in luoghi differenti, dimostra come il contesto e la
performance si influenzino a vicenda, offrendo una riflessione sulla realtà circostante.
La performance Virus, realizzata al Sofa di New York, ha avuto esiti completamente differenti da quella realizzata a Bologna, e implicazioni aggiuntive.

"In the series called Virus, the artist is a sort of living sculpture. Dressed in a black outfit with red dots, the notorious sold stickers, the artist went to art fairs and placed them under several works under the noses of upset gallerists and stunned visitors. The sold dot is a universal sign that makes the difference. You judge a work in another way if it has been sold. Red dots mean money, power, and often fame. The same performance in Bologna (Italy) and in New York had extremely different results. Liuba's main interest in doing this provocative performance is the social aspect of the reactions, a sort of anthropological point of view. The audience's reaction, in fact, provides a direct and immediate take on a country, a people, and
its issues. At the SOFA, Liuba generated such an angry reaction that she was forced by the Show Management to leave the fair. The ironic aspect of this strong reaction is that security guards spent at least 20 minutes explaining to her what the red dots mean in the U.S. before they pushed her out, confiscating her cameraman's ID and passport "because people pay for having a booth and people pay for visiting the fair," as they kept repeating in the video.They could not even imagine that she was sticking red dots on purpose – to the security staff she was a silly woman acting pointlessly. In Italy the gallerists at the fair were really annoyed by her, but it was clear to everybody that she was playing with the art system and this provided a degree of entertainment at the same time. Liuba's works are based on the direct comparison between the artist and the audience, the live performance and the recorded video, the rules and the illegal.

(Irina Zucca Alessandrelli)