The opening of the international art fair Art Chicago 1998, corresponded with the beginning of the portable project Pick Up Truck Gallery. Barbara Holub drove into Art Chicago and, using a male stripper, announced her project "Driven". The stripper undressed for the Art public, one could here Holubs voice through the tape recorder next to the man: "All of this art, which surrounds you, which does not address you personally.... Maybe you have always wanted something more. From life. From yourself... Nobody can read your mind. You do not have to be embarrassed."

Driven was conceived for the Pick Up Truck Gallery run by artist Matthew Girson. Girson set an initiative outside of the regular gallery structure and used an infrastructure, which was available to him: a pick up truck. He then invited artists, who he knew had done some public art pieces, to develop projects which would be driven through the city of Chicago in his pick up truck. Barbara Holub developed a radio play in which she once again dealt with anthropological questions: Holub approaches, empirically and at the same time in a searching manner, connections and interactions separating hidden emotions and desires.

The Pick UP TRUCK is an outstanding mechanism to track suppressed desires: a male or female art viewer, provided they allow themselves to be involved in art outside of a secured institution, indicate alone through the "act of attendance" a certain attitude of increased expectation. This thrill is contrasted by a radio play that concerns itself with the social displacing within the city: the invisibility of prostitution and the different moral conceptions within Chicago. Holub conversed with prostitutes, created her own texts, predominantly in the form of suggestive questions and orders between fragments of conversation and created a radio play for the art-interested public.
She demands relaxation from her public in order to lure them into intimate scenes, where the listener, caught between self reflection and prejudice, identifies his/her self in the scenes played on the Pick UP TRUCK.

'Make yourself comfortable, put on your sleeping glasses. It will help you enjoy your new experiences... Did you ever think about abysses existing in yourself? Which are at the same time seductive? ' You ask me whether I sometimes feel lonely? I feel best with my men. I prefer it when a guy comes and knows what he wants. He pays in cash. I offer what I can offer to him. We are both conscious in what we expect from each other. Openness and honesty, that is what I like... ' (Taken from the radio-play ' Driven ')

The passenger is repeatedly integrated into the happenings and the sleeping mask prevents the visual pursuit of the travel. A video camera documents the journey in place of the blindfolded passenger. The route took them through quarters, in which prostitution or sex business takes place. Since this is officially forbidden in Chicago the signs are concealed and the scene is only visible for insiders. For the passenger or the visitor of Holub's mobile installation, the invisibility becomes visible here through suggestions, bound eyes and expectations. The action ends when the passenger is brought back to the departure point and receives a note via tape to examine the glove compartment while their eyes are still covered. Barbara Holub has two multiples stowed away here, which are not obviously erotic, it is only because of the radio that the two objects become reminiscent of taboos. (Suess)

Exhibitions

RBB-Kunstpreis, 1997

Galerie Schafschetzy Studio, Graz (ST), Austria

Driven, 1998

7562 LR-Truck Gallery, Chicago, U.S.A

Kompression, 1998

Schallautzerstraße 4, Wien, Austria

Specifications

36min mono color PAL

Technical protocol

Mini Digital Video (recording); Media 100 (digital editing); Beta SP (master)

Produced together with

Camera: Matthew Girson, Barbara Holub; Editing: Dariusz Krzeczek, Barbara Holub; Voice: Robin Lee, Barbara Neusiedler, Anna Hostalek, John, Erika Kaufmann, Barbara Holub; Sound design: Lutz Nerger, Michael Stohmann; Sound production: Rinoisl Studio, Vienna, in cooperation with the Akademy of Music and Performing Art, Vienna.

Production

Barbara Holub

Post production

Zone, Wien

Sponsorship

BMUK (Dr. Timmermann); Stadt Wien(Frau Erika Kaufmann)

Copyright

Barbara Holub

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