intimacies explores ways to organize labour in the field of performance art and investigates the economic, artistic and political implications of private models of funding. Working towards an on-demand-service for performative encounters, the structural element borrowed from the neighboring fields of both art galleries and escort services is the perspective of a client who invests money to realize an individual desire. The concern with private sources of funding is motivated by the concrete economic realities of the performing arts and in the light of increasingly drastic budget cuts.

The basic idea is that one can hire performers to create emotions, simulate intimacies or enact fantasies on demand and in a private environment, mediated by „third things“, ruins, cultural artefacts re-animated from the archive: books, poems, costumes, films, music etc. As customers order from a repertoire of gestures, situations and embodiments, the performer turns virtual reservoir and projective surface for affective resonances.

At Wiener Festwochen, a trial run of this service was proposed in the form of miniature performances à 35-45 minutes, developed for and with 7 outstanding performers and presented to 1 person a time over 4 weekends. A continuous office structure introduced the experimental hypothesis throughout the duration of the festival. Each visitor was invited to reflect their experience in an aftertalk that serves as a base for the further development of the service.

intimacies ist ein sich in Entwicklung befindender On-Demand-Service für performative Dienstleistungen, der individuelle Begegnungen mit professionellen Performer:innen vermittelt und konzipiert. Über die Plattform intimacies.com können Interessierte demnächst private Performances mit Künstler:innen buchen, die in der Regel in Hotelzimmern stattfinden. Die Preisgestaltung variiert je nach Künstler:in, finanziellen Möglichkeiten des:der Kund:in, Grad der Individualisierung des Angebots und dem Ort der Begegnung.

Für die Wiener Festwochen ist das Publikum eingeladen, den Arbeitsprozess zur Entwicklung des Produkts zu testen und zu begleiten. Einzelne Performer:innen können für 1-1 Begegnungen gebucht werden, die sich entlang von performativen Miniaturen entfalten.