The performance begins when M starts mixing clay and gradually adds gummy bears to it. This process continues until the entire pile of clay and gummy bears merges into a homogeneous mass. Colorful teddy bears will ‘peek out’ from the homogeneous mass. When the mass is sufficiently homogeneous and the clay is saturated with gummy bears, M creates a sculptural form, which is handed over to P. P places it on the potter’s wheel, activates the burner, and slowly bakes the mass with a strong flame. Occasionally, he turns the mass on the wheel until it is ‘burned’ from all sides. The performance ends when the entire mass is processed (burned, melted, destroyed) by the burner.

The performance “Sweet life” should be observed from various angles, such as:

• Reference to history – the mixture of clay with mammoth bones, which is the oldest evidence of synthetic material ever made by humans, a site in Czech Moravia where over 10,000 such-made ceramic fragments were found. If ceramics were produced back then just to be ‘broken’ by thermal shock, it can be concluded that the process of creating objects was more important than the final product. This also applies to the performance, whose work is based on time and directs our attention to the process rather than primarily on the durability of the final product.
• The process of high-temperature firing, in the performance using an improvised torch burner, will melt gummy bears mixed with clay and produce a sweet smell that refers to Earth pollution.

SWEET LIFE / IMAF 2018 12th International Multimedia Art Festival, Hotel Sloboda – plce for Multimedial Art Studio, Odžaci, Serbia, 7 September 2018, duration: 17′