Routine Art 831

This performance art piece presents a reflection on the relationship between the art process and the economic process, a relationship between the space of production and the space of sales and purchase. Both the artistic and commercial fields present a number of similarities: a step-by-step process to reach a final result, the transformation of material, the production in the studio and the production in the factory, the selling of an artwork in a gallery and the selling of a product on the supermarket shelf. I proposed myself to become a factory worker for a week and involve myself in all the process that such a job entails, a job which society might undermine as low-skilled or unskilled. This performance took place at the factory responsible for the production and running of Coca-Cola in Malta. I was interested in any kind of manual, repetitive, boring work, be it also the simplest or most unskilled job, that could also cause physical strain. The company accepted my proposal and after a number of initial meetings and the necessary training they offered me a position for one week in their kitting department. The latter is the final stage of the whole production process where drinks are selected according to orders, loaded onto vans and distributed to shops. I followed all the routine of the other colleagues and so I respected my shifts - be it early morning or late evening, break-time as well as the required uniform, safety shoes and the high-visibility safety vest. In total I worked an average of eight hours a day for one whole week in September 2014.