Reality is something that surely fascinates us. Probably also because it is mostly associated with the concept of the truth. And this fact could pretty much help us to understand the obsession with which the human beings have been trying to capture the reality since the beginning of their existence. We’ve always tried to make things appear as real as possible simply because that would increase their value. Because reality is something we find valuable.

And so the invention of photography looked like a dream came true. For the first time we were really able to believe or at least hope that a moment in time can be frozen and reality conserved. Of course soon we realized that the hope was false and that the mission was basically impossible. A photograph is not real in what it shows but only real in what it is - a piece of paper holding an image.

But then again what is reality in the first place? And how can we be sure that whatever we are dealing with is indeed real? The reality is a complex issue to which we are not able to give a final answer. Yet we can still comfortably believe that at least there are things which appear to us as more real than some other things. Which means that in the end our understanding of what is real will always be what we perceive and accept as being real.

“Reality for sale” is an artistic idea which is trying to turn a photograph into something that a photograph have never been before - a real object. Into a real object the image of which it shows. With this idea I am trying to make a dream of a photograph come true. And the photograph will not become just something which shows reality (which is the most we could ever dream of so far) but it will become reality itself.

The idea I am going to use to achieve my goal is really simple:

1. I went to a supermarket and looked for any product that would cost exactly 1 €.

2. There I found a set of watercolors and I bought it (for 1 €) and took a photograph of it.

3. I made 9 copies of the photograph.

4. Now I am going to sell these photographs not as photographs but as watercolors with the price of 1 €.

Selling at least one of them would mean that there was at least one person who accepted my statement that the watercolors were real and not just an image on a photograph. But of course one could say that it’s not a big deal to accept that when its about spending 1 €. That’s why my idea doesn’t end here but it moves further:

5. After selling all nine photographs as watercolors for 1 € each I will have 9 €.

6. Then again I will go to a supermarket or find some other place from where I could buy something for exactly 9 €.

7. I will then take a photograph of the object I bought and make 8 copies of it.

8. Then I will sell them as real objects and not just as an image for 9 € each.

9. After selling all of them I will get 72 €.

So, the calculation is as follows:

1 € x 9 = 9 €
9 € x 8 = 72 €
72 € x 7 = 504 €
504 € x 6 = 3024 €
3024 € x 5 = 15.120 €
15.120 € x 4 = 60.480 €
60.480 € x 3 = 181.440 €
181.440 € x 2 = 326.880 €
326.880€ x 1 = 326.880 €

So, the final “photograph” will be sold for 326.880 €. And who would be willing to spend that much money on something he believed was not worth that much? By selling the last photograph I will then prove that a photograph is not just a piece of paper holding an image but a real and true object because the price of it would be exactly the same as it was the price of a true and real object that the photograph represents.

But the project “Reality for sale” has another important artistic implication. The concept on which it is built understands art as something that has yet to happen based on an artistic idea which is not yet an artwork itself. It’s about an artistic idea which might never turn into an artwork and it only would if everything comes true as it was designed. And the more improbable it is that the idea would come true the more valuable the artwork would be if the idea behind it would indeed come true. In this way I am being consistent with the belief that maybe art is not even possible.

Is art even real?