PEEP ATELIERS is a project that asks for an estimation of working time from consumers of cultural goods. Each artist partakes in society and therefore is restricted to modes of payment in everyday life. Rent and other monthly accounts as well as all kinds of daily bills occur in a unitary societal cycle. Each line of business has a distinct mode of payment and a reasonably transparent pricing policy. Art, however, doesn’t, but why? Is it presumptuous to claim a minimum rate? In how far does art change in the context of standardized methods of production? What’s the worth of an artist’s working hour? It’s our aim to ask these questions at the Forum Festival 2007.

PEEP ATELIERS is an arrangement of three booths of 4m² floor space in each of which artists like writers, painters, graphic designers, or musicians are eager to be ‘activated’ by potential consumers through a system similar to that of vending machines, i.e. a consumer is given the chance to make a claim on an artist for an indefinite amount of money.

Through the insertion of a coin / coins a countdown is set, which predetermines a fixed lapse of time that is activated by the artists themselves during which they must conceptualize and realize a product. After the time has expired the artist hands a piece of art over to the customer.

1 Euro equals 4 minutes working time, insert 2 Euros and your piece of art will be produced in 8 minutes, 3 Euros and the artist of your choice has 12 minutes to prove her/his skills, etc. Time seems to run out too fast but that’s exactly what artists as well as consumers have to overcome.

PEEP ATELIERS entails ‘unconditionalization’ – claims for quality, quantity as well as performance are way out of place.