Public Telephone is a framework to facilitate all artists currently working at the Dutch Art Institute / MFA ArtEZ to produce new work, on their own terms, within its parameters. It takes the form of a 'public' telephone located somewhere in the public space of Amsterdam. The telephone will receive incoming calls, ringing out loud when it does, and be operational for the duration of the DAI workshops in Dakar in Senegal as they coincide with the duration of the exhibition – i.e. 3–13 May. All Dutch Art Institute / MFA ArtEZ students will be able to make a call to this public telephone in Amsterdam at any time during the day or night during the period that it is operational and to offer some form of audio work by this means. Nobody will know exactly when a call will be made and obviously there is no guarantee that the ringing telephone would be answered. There are no criteria or restrictions as to what this audio work could be. Perhaps they would describe the place they are calling from in Dakar, perhaps they would play a pre-recorded audio work down the line, perhaps they would have a conversation with the person in Amsterdam who happens to pick up the telephone when it is ringing or ask them to do something or relay something to other people who might also be passing by. Maybe they would even tell a joke. It is the artists' choice.

three artists walk into a bar