Apart from fulfilling the criterion of simplicity imposed by the textual form of press release, the juxtaposition of “subjective” and “theoretical” premises of the curatorial selection of artworks for the exhibition disclosed in the text which presents the exhibition LabSUs Personally to the public is, of course, an impertinent lie. Besides placing the theoretical in opposition to the subjective, it creates the illusion of subject and subjectivity being an autonomous entity and unalterable constant achieved by removing and discarding all unauthentic, replaceable and imposed layers (e.g. in this case, disregarding the factors of circumstances, obligations, considerations, consensus, efficiency, theory, trends, opportunism, market, etc.).

What would then my “true” curatorial Self have chosen as its sincere, authentic, intuitive, barren (and by that inevitably brave?) choice par excellence? Chatting with one of her guests who was, as usually, speaking of discovering and cherishing our true Selves, Oprah Winfrey has hit the painful core of that phantasmagoric come-back and encounter with the authentic by asking, “And what if the True Self is a fool?” What if the true self is a fool and what if the true curatorial self is an even greater fool? What if, by discarding the imposed layers of illusion and deception, I realise that my true curatorial self actually wants to show the expressively mutilated yet sensual female nudes by Dimitrije Popović; what if it thinks that the American Abstract Expressionism is still the unsurpassable peak of artistic creation and what if it is deeply convinced that the Washington night skyline painted by Charles Bilich, an Australian craftsman of Croatian origin, which the Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader gave as a present to President George Bush, is the best way to introduce Croatian contemporary art to the world? What if my true curatorial self doesn’t even want to be the curatorial self?

Considering the potential scenarios, I felt gratitude in front of the fact that my true curatorial self did not exist; that each of my choices was equally personal and subjective and by that always determined and defined by a chain of circumstances, contexts and facts, much like the one displayed at the exhibition LabSUs Personally. When I reflect upon the choices of my colleagues, I realise that they are equally the outcome of personal histories and current preoccupations, as well as our joint year-long “laboratory” adventure, which provided the “personal” a strong collective frame. This adventure is now approaching the moment when it will be interrupted by the inception of silence. There will be no more e-mails, phone calls, technical riders, PR’s and budgets, no more frustrations caused by inefficiency and lack of organisation, subsequently justified by finances, loss of energy, loss of reasons and motives, depression, or by being constantly overloaded, tired and dislocated.

This is where my true curatorial self is dwelling at this moment: somewhat vague and inarticulate, aware of the long and arduous road leading to the total (curatorial?) silence, complaining about the insufficiency and kitschiness of speech. Refusing to defend its choice with the usual curatorial-critical rhetoric (giving art rest from analytical-critical tools along with giving rest to the tools as well), the performance by Božena Končić Badurina “An Hour of Silence” will be minimally and naively interpreted as the therapeutic séance for us laboratory attendees, staggering from all that discursiveness, polemics, clear articulation of attitudes and locating problems. Tired of words and intellectual battles, sitting in the room where we have held our first working meetings and enthusiastic debates and polemics, we now learn a new way of being together: through silence. In yet another opportunistic, sentimental and unprofessional interpretation, my curatorial self will want to impose as a mantra to all other laboratory attendees and visitors a statement by Igor Grubić, which was part of the project “Respite” by Tanja Dabo and Igor Grubić, and which I will use to conclude this text:

“I want to rest myself from work, myself from myself, society from myself, society from art; I want art to have rest from art.”