I don’t understand the process of ordering your performance.
It is actually very simple, you just have to follow the normal process of ordering items in a webshop. You can watch the video chapters and drag the ones you like to the timeline. Then follow the steps till the end. If the process is still too abstract for you, check our How Does It Work - visual explanation in 6 steps.
When and how do I pay?
After you submit your order, our team will contact you to discuss the payment. We don’t accept credit/debit cards, at the moment payment is only possible via bank wire.
Can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your show up to 1 month before the date of your performance. Any later cancellations are not possible (even for performances that were ordered within this timeframe).
Can I change my order?
You can, but you need to discuss the details with our team.
Can I order your performance even though I am not a programer or a curator?
Of course! This webshop is for anyone who is interested in our work and would like to join the last part of our creative process.
I don’t have an art space / theatre-like venue. Can I still order my own version of the À la Cart Performance?
Surely! The À la Cart Performance can be adapted to many different types of venues. We even encourage you to suggest executions of the performance in non-traditional venues, such as private houses, open spaces, toilets, gardens,... So be brave and challenge us!
What does it mean that the shipping costs are not included?
As the À la Cart Performance can be ordered to any part of the world, it is impossible for us to predict travel costs for live executions of the performance. This is why the costs of travel and accommodation are not included in the total price of the ordered performance, and it is the buyer’s responsibility to take care of these costs.
I feel like I am cheated to pay so much for my customised performance.
The À la Cart Performance Webshop developed a very transparent system of charging separate chapters. The price of your performance comprises performance fee, costs of preparations and rehearsals and all the additional material costs connected to each concrete chapter. So the price is definitely not a cheat, but a very realistic reflection of time and money invested into each individual chapter. You can read more about the pricing here.
I don’t like any of the offered chapters. Is there still an option for me to order a performance through the À la Cart Performance Webshop?
Once again: Of course! As we are aware that art is also a question of taste and also thinking of those organisers who are looking for a very specific event, we prepared a special feature of the À la Cart Performance Webshop - a Custom Made Chapter form. This form enables you to create your very own chapter from scratch and become its co-creator. You can access the form here and decide on all the important elements of the chapter.
I have never heard of Post-Fordism. What does this term mean?
Many of us do not know this term, but are actually constantly in touch with it in our every-day lives. Post-Fordism is embedded in all aspects of our contemporary lifestyles, as it represents the production system behind the consumer society of today. Post-Fordism is characterised by a very particular approach to work, encompassing flexible working hours, increased mobility of workforce and increased production of products that not only have to be useful, but they have to look good as well, follow the latest trends and give impression that they can be adapted for individual needs.
Is this really an art project? I feel you are betraying art by making it so commercial.
It is true - at first glance it might seem that we are selling out our artistic practice. But if you really look at the webshop framework we created and the content of our À la Cart Performance, you will see that this is not the case. What we set to do (and we think we achieved it) was to develop a mechanism that protects the artistic integrity of an artist, to set concrete, very transparent prices that pay artistic work for the real work done (and not assume that art is for free) as well as expose and discuss many habits and traps that are incorporated in our contemporary lives in Post-Fordist society. We think it is important for artists, freelancers and other members of contemporary society to acknowledge their practices of self-exploitation, exhaustion, oversaturation of their minds and other daily malaises as only thus we can impose changes and start fighting for better quality of our lives.
Doesn’t the idea of “customizing art works” support even greater prostitution of artists and their ideas?
We believe this depends on the implementation. In our case, we started from a very simple principle. We learned that normally, the system of customization is always done in a way that the buyer is convinced to have a certain power, freedom of decisions, ability to take part. This sells better because it gives people a feeling that what they feel, need or care about matters. And it does, but only to a point. All the really important decisions stay in the hands of the corporations which produce the products. So we tried to include our buyers in our creative process and really offer them certain decisions and part-taking, a system to make us actively work with them. At the same time, as the corporate customization mechanisms thought us, we - as the makers of customizable goods, can pre-prepare our work/webshop mechanism in a way that we remain in charge of our work, that our artistic beliefs won’t suffer. So we ask you, aren’t we actually fighting against artistic prostitution?
Do you plan to change your Post-Fordist theme any time soon?
Since the effects and the realities of Post-Fordism basically relate to anything we (and you) are doing nowadays, we think it still offers quite some potential for discovery (read: creation of new, witty and interesting chapters). But we are also open to new, non-Post-Fordist themes. We actually plan to release a new batch of chapters at the end of 2015/beginning of 2016.