Generous confrontation with our own charity

How much do you need for your own prosperity ? Imagine spending half of what you have on charity. A few wealthy entrepreneurs have already applied the so-called 'halfbreadtechnique'. Unlike them Martin Schick is only a modest Swiss artist. He has to display his generosity through art.

To begin with Schick gives half of his stage ánd half of his production budget to a guest dancer from a developing country. Thus originates a grand charity event in which the two dancers and the public examine the relationship between do-gooders and generosity. Is our do-good thinking a form of neocolonialism ? In a time that requires an alternative economy, Schick offers new perspectives. Since 2012 Halfbreadtechnique has conquered the hearts of the public world-wide.

Halfbreadtechnique is part of Marten Schick's Low Budget Series, a compilation of three performances about the 'marketing' of the artistic landscape. In these performances he doesn't look for producers or subsidies but he makes his work with a minimum budget. In a sober setting focusing rather on content than on aestethics, he translates the whole consumption and marketing system to the stage.

Martin Schick is an international performance artist from Switzerland, living in Berlin. After his studies at a private ballet school he took a theatre course at the Academy for the Arts in Bern. In his work Schick tries to interfere with the reigning conventions within theatre ánd daily reality. In CMMN  SNS PRJCT  Schick and Laura Kalauz threw economic conventions overboard : the public could win a whole counter of tombola prizes but also gave their clothes to the performers. In 2015 he founded the label General Performances, a utopian art enterprise that focuses on productivity instead of products and where art is expected to create jobs.

With brio Schick points out our responsibility for the almighty capitalism.' The Straits Times – Singapore