Press Release No.1

CODE:RED USA

Tadej Pogacar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art
New York, April 23rd - May 9th 2002
htttp://www.parasite-pogacar.si
P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum, Hrusevska 66, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
T +386 040 636 011 e-mail: tpogacar@yahoo.com

CODE:RED (1999-2004) is an on going project which investigates and discusses the aspects of prostitution and sexual work as a specific form of parallel economy. It researches analogue economic models: those of isolated groups and social minorities. The project uses real and virtual spaces and takes the form of an open dialogue between artists, sex workers and the public in selected urban environments and local contexts. Above all the CODE:RED project intends to offer an introduction of economic and political ideas to new social practices and artistic applications. It is a model of cognitive mapping that gives the sex workers - who are among the most marginalised and deprived population groups in the urban environment - a chance to speak out and be seen in a new context. The CODE:RED project represents a prototypical attempt to open and co-create a common ground for communication and dialogue between the public, artists and the sex workers community.
The CODE:RED USA project is the newest phase of a CODE:RED project. It actively involves local New York organisations for protection and helping sex workers as well as artists, activists, organisers and sex workers. The CODE:RED USA project consists of public actions, interventions, discussions, a public performance and a special homepage.

P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art (PMCA) is a symbolic virtual institution and critical formation. Its location and identity are unclear and for most even today still completely unknown. PMCA became renown with the reusing of the logo of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the theft of the introductory speech of the director of the Guggenheim museum from its homepage. These actions became the trademarks of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. museum. Numerous interventions into the following museum collections followed: Boijmans van Boyningen, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana; Naturmuseum, Rotterdam, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana; Mucsarnok, Budimpesta; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, etc. Extreme media attention and fame was reached at the 49th Venice Biennial with the organisation of the 1stt World Congress of Sex Workers and New parasitism in Giardani in the frame of the CODE:RED, Sex Worker project. In the most recent projects PMCA deals with the research and analysis of parallel information strategies and parallel economic models in selected urban areas. PMCA co-operated at numerous manifestations and events such as Manifesta 1 in Rotterdam; After the Wall in Stockholm, Berlin, Budapest; 49. Venice Biennial; Steiricher Herbst 2001 in Graz; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City; ZKM Karlsruhe.

CODE:RED USA homepage
http://www. parasite-pogacar.si
The new project homepage will be officially accessible to the public on the Internet as of 17th April 2002 from 00.00 hours Central European time or 16th April 2002, 6 p.m. New York time. The homepage will contain the basic information on the project, a forum and a short history. The page will be actualised and supplemented with information on realised actions and interventions.

Actions and performance / 29th April - 8th May 2002
Between 29th April and 8th May a series of anonymous conceptual actions on the narrower territory of New York City will take place. Most actions and interventions will take place unannounced, in public areas. All activities will be documented and represented on the project homepage. The series of actions will be concluded with a public performance, which will be organised in co-operation with the local organisations for sex workers' rights and organisations for decriminalisation of prostitution and activists. The location and time of the performance will be published in the next announcement.

the Ultimate Conspiracy SW partyference / May 6th 2002
Everything in deep conspiracy. Discussion, meeting, presentation and party.

CODE : RED Discussion Evening / 8th May 2002
APEX, 291 Church street, New York City , 7 p.m.
The discussion will present the genesis of the CODE:RED project. The following themes will be discussed by the participants: public space and its control, human rights and the sex industry, the influence of globalisation on the practice of sexual work, parallel economies and marginal communities, etc. Amongst others the following individuals will participate in the discussion: Carol Leigh (San Francisco, BAYSWAN), Tadej Pogacar (Ljubljana, director of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art) and Pablo Helguerra (Mexico City, New York).

This project was made possible, in part, by funds from the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, supported by Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. The project was partly supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.