So good, right?2023
NIDA Art Colony (Nida, Lithuania)
Immersive performance for 100 people, 20 min.
This 20-minute immersive performance, created for 100 visitors at NIDA Art Colony, temporarily transformed the projection hall into a hard techno club with a functioning bar. Upon arrival, guests received armbands printed with “So good, right?” and stepped into a fog-filled space lit by red strobes. At the back of the room, I served drinks behind the bar—positioned as a bartender rather than a central performer. No guidance was offered, yet people naturally formed a queue, which quietly triggered the next layer of the piece.
Among the crowd were 6 undercover collaborators, each following a conversational script I had written. Blending in as fellow attendees, they began casually pitching my upcoming art project. Their task was to gather grant tips, gain me Instagram followers, and help spread the word—mirroring the informal yet essential ways networking often unfolds in the cultural sector.
As the space filled with conversation, laughter, and a bit of dancing, the tone subtly shifted. Sixteen minutes in, the pounding techno was replaced by “Killer on the Dance Floor” and the lighting turned pink. One by one, the undercover agents joined me behind the bar. When the music stopped and the lights came on, we bowed together.
The performance reflected on the often-invisible labor behind artistic careers—highlighting the contrast between service roles and the aspirational figure of the “successful artist.” By inviting the audience into this ambiguous social setting, the piece asked how much of cultural work depends on improvisation, charm, and relational skills. It also questioned who gets to be seen, heard, and remembered in these shared spaces—and under what conditions.
And I left with 7 new funding tips, 2 groupshows invites and 26 new Instagram followers.
Bar-team: Bobo Baoxin Liao, Mara Ittel
Secret networkers: Elif Cadoux,
Ian Nolan, Maxima Smith, Maxine Vajt, Seré, Stephen McEvoy
Entrance performers: Antoine Simeão Schalk, Celeste Perret, Iliada Charalambous, Ros Del Olmo
Tech help: Peter Sattler, Kastė
Seskevic
Documentation: David Přílučík