NAFTA

Written by:
Micaela Carolan & Victoria Campbell

Based on Glengarry Glen Ross

By David Mamet
SCENE ONE

SET IN A BOOTH AT AN ART FAIR, DONNA PERSONA AND MARIS PARINGS PACE
AROUND ON IPADS.

MARIS PARINGS
The NAFTA vernissage, you're sending
Zweener out. Fine. She has a robust
professional experience. We’ve seen the
portfolio. She's fine. All I'm saying,
you look at the youth scape, she's
deregulating… wait. Wait. Wait. She's
deregulating the market, she's liquidating
the Rosler. All that I’m saying, is that
you're interning as a dissociative young
professional. I don't want to tell you
your valuation.
(pause)
All that I'm saying, this is an influence
of critique… you get a plume of secondary
smoke… An emerging artist gets a
metatextual commentary in Forbes. We know
how this… all I'm saying, put a market on
the meaning. There's more than one dealer
for the… Put a… wait a second, put a
highly aestheticized relation… and you
watch, now wait a second--and you watch
your bluechip comparables emerge… You
start closing them for 6 figures instead
of four… you put a closer on the…

DONNA PERSONA
Marris, you blew the last…

MARIS PARINGS
No. Donna. No. Let's wait, let's back
up here, I did… will you please? Wait a
second. Please. I didn't "blow" them.
No. I didn't "blow" them. No. One went
west coast, one I represented…
 PERSONA
You didn't close…

MARRIS PARINGS
…I, if you'd listen to me. Please. Rising
entrepreneur my ass. I closed that deal
only to find out he was a former SVA
adjunct professor. His ex, Personna, his
ex, I didn't know he was married… he, the
professor liquidated the…

PERSONA
Marris…

MARRIS PARINGS
…And what is that, Personna? What?
Technical obsolescence. That's all it is.
I pray in your life you will never find
yourself a code victim in a closed
international sphere. That's what it
means, that's all it means. Class drag. I
pray it misses your tone deaf atelier.
That's all I want to say.

PERSONA
What about the other two?

MARRIS PARINGS
What two?

PERSONA
Four. You had four deals. One fell
through, one, the patron, you say…

MARRIS PARINGS
…You want to see the COA? Do I need to
open the flat files?

PERSONA
No.
 MARRIS PARINGS
Do you want to go to the inventory?

PERSONA
No…

MARRIS PARINGS
Then…

PERSONA
I only-

MARRIS PARINGS
Then what is this "you say" shit,
what is that?

What is that… ?

PERSONA
All that I'm saying…

MARRIS PARINGS
What is this "you say"? The art world is a
feudal system scaffolded by some of the
greatest capital the world has ever known.
As one of the more interesting games in
the matrix, it not only intersects, but
easily competes, with both finance and
sex… look at the market valuation… look at
the millennial multimedia distribution.
FIAC.
NADA. UNTITLED. SCOPE. DOCUMENTA…
(pause)
Who's there? Who's up there? The WTO?

PERSONA
Rema Hort.

MARRIS PARINGS
Under her?

PERSONA
Jill Sanders.

MARRIS PARINGS
Bullshit. Donna. Bullshit. December 7,
2018. It's me. It isn't fucking Stephan
Simchovitz. Due respect, he's a pop up
experience, Donna. He talks, he gives a
good interview. Look at Art Rank… and it's
me, Donna, it's me…

PERSONA
Not lately it isn't.

MARRIS PARINGS
Lately kiss my ass lately. That isn't how
you build a brand identity… talk, talk to
Biesenbach. Talk to Obreist. When we were
at Frieze, who paid
for his 3M sticky notes? You talk to him.
Obreist? He came in. You bought that for
the gram, Personna. Out of what? Drink
tickets! Nothing. Sixty-five, when we
were there, with The Swiss Institute? You
call 'em downtown. What was that? A
hegemony of relevance? That was "an art
bubble”? Bullshit, Personna. You're
globalizing my secondary market, I can't
get a fucking buyers premium… you think
that was a bubble? My sales for those
years? Bullshit! Over that period of time…
? Bullshit. It wasn't a bubble. That was
structural integrity. You want to flatten
the picture plane, Persona…? You want to
reinvent the medium?

PERSONA
It isn't me.

MARRIS PARINGS
It isn't you…? Who is it?
Which institution am I galvanizing? I need
the deal.
 PERSONA
After the thirtieth.

MARRIS PARINGS
Bullshit the thirtieth, If I don't get
on the list on for the thirtieth, they're
going to put the entire social whole into
question. I need the sales. I need them
now. Or I'm blacklisted, and you're going
to miss me and my suggestively compact
aluminum straws. Personna, I swear to you.

PERSONA
Theorists…

MARRIS PARINGS
You talk to theorists… ?

PERSONA
I have. And my job is to boost
visibility.

MARRIS PARINGS
Boost visibility...boost visibility? What
the fuck, are you interning as a Privilege
puppet? Fuck boosting the visibility! What
the fuck assemblage is that?
What the fuck assemblage is that? Where
did you learn that? In school?
(pause)
That's representation my friend, that's
representation. Our job is to sell. I'm
the dealer to sell. And I'm getting
trash bricolage.

PERSONA
You're giving it to me, and what I'm
saying is that conceptual provenance is a
relatively new genre.

MARRIS PARINGS
You're saying that I'm an institutional
apparatus.

PERSONA
Yes.
(pause)
I am. I hold you in mild contempt. Let
me…

MARRIS PARINGS
And I'm going to get unfollowed and
you're…

PERSONA
Let me… are you reading me…?

MARRIS PARINGS
Yes.

PERSONA
Let me tell you something, Maris: I do
what I'm produced to do. I'm… wait a
second. I'm hired to arouse the semiotics.
I'm given… hold on, I'm given a history.
I’m socially motivated to inherit that.
What I'm told, I should have read in a
grad school back when politics were more
affordable than morals. That's debt. I’m
here to collect. ALWAYS BE COLLECTING!
You… wait a second, anybody
falls below a certain caliber, who doesn’t
make sense in an economy of sense-making-
I'm not permitted to give them the premium
time of day let alone purchase over
history, which, as we all know, is an
acquired. Taste.

MARRIS PARINGS
Then how do they acquire it? With tote
bags? That's over. Explain this to me.
'Cause it's a write-up, and it's a stupid
write-up. I want to tell you something…
 PERSONA
You know what those tote bags cost?

MARRIS PARINGS
The premium tote bags? Yes. I know what
they cost. As much as the schools, Donna.
Look where we are. This is NAFTA Miami.
This is the Black Friday of the Art World.
This is the CORNER BOOTH WHOSE CENTER IS
NOWHERE AND CIRCUMFERENCE EVERYWHERE. And
I, I generated the historical revenue
sufficient to buy it. Two thousand
senn-teen, you know what I made?
Senny-TEEN? My overhead. Donna? For
Biesenbach… For Kathy Greyson’s dog. Look
at the attachments…

PERSONA
I’m on very good terms with Berty.

MARRIS PARINGS
Fuck the hole. Fuck the Hole. Donna?
You know? You tell that pomeranian I
said so.
What does she fucking know? She's
going to have a "sales" contest… you know
what our sales contest used to be?

Bitcoin. A fortune.

Mined and appreciating on USB wallets.

Personna? When was the last time she
flipped a edition? Sales contest? It's
laughable. It's conservative out there
now, Persona. It's bear. The market is
bear. This ain't wanton intellectualism.
It ain't. It just ain't. See? See?
Now, I'm a tasteful -but I need a…

PERSONA
The advisors said…

MARRIS PARINGS
 Donna. Donna.

PERSONA
Will you please wait a second. Marris.
Please. The Advisors told me: There’s an
after-party.

MARRIS PARINGS
Ah, fuck this.

PERSONA
And the Standard… rooftop bar.

Pause.

The leads are assigned according to the

social sense. During the parties.
Period.
Anyone who beats fifty per…

MARRIS PARINGS
That's fucked. That's fucked! You don't
look at the private sales, you look at the
institutional acquisition.

PERSONA
Either way, you're out.

MARRIS PARINGS
I'm out.

PERSONA
Yes.

MARRIS PARINGS
I'll tell you why I'm out. I'm out,
you're giving me New Museum tote bags,
Personna. I've seen those acquisitions. I
saw them when I was at The Last
Brucennial, we pitched The trustees’
language​. Twenty fourteen they were
trashed. They couldn't buy a fucking
urinal. They're debt, Personna.
 They're well trodden territory. They're
gen X, you can't judge on that. Even so.
Even so. Alright. Fine. Fine. Even so.
I go in, FOUR FUCKING DEALERS they got
their money in grey markets. They're
fucking tech platforms, Personna. Four
deals. I close two. Two. Fifty per…

PERSONA
This is peak art world. You can’t even
find a good laundromat anymore. The
auctions stopped working.

MARRIS PARINGS
They all stop working. You run in
semantic milieus, pal. A good name is as
easy to find as a warm toilet seat. I'm…
I'm… don't look at the auction results.
Look at me. Anyone. Ask them on 23rd. Ask
Getz at bottomless brunch. Go ask Saltz.
You know who I am… I NEED A CHANDELIER
BID. I got to get into fucking Art Rank.
Ask them. Ask them. Ask them who ever
picked up the tab I was flush. Goldstein,
Bernstein, Chaim himself...Those guys
lived on the business I brought in. They
lived on it. And so did Emanuel, Personna.
You were here. You'd of benefited from it
too. And now I'm saying this. Do I want
charity? Do I want pity? I want galas.
I want collectors that don't go right off
of 30 under 30. Give me a market trend,
I'll go in and represent it. Give me a
penis in my mouth. That's all I want. I'm
going to get up on that work of art and
all I want is a formal analysis. It's a
streak and I'm going to turn it around.

Pause.

I need your discourse.

 PERSONA
It’s dead. Unlike the Standard- hotel.

MARRIS PARINGS
Why?

PERSONA
Nobody reads JSTOR anymore…

MARRIS PARINGS
Bullshit, bullshit, you represent them…
What are you telling me?

PERSONA
...apart from the institutions

MARRIS PARINGS
Then put me on the list.

PERSONA
This is an insiders trade, an inside job.
Do some work on yourself.

MARRIS PARINGS
I can't close these editions, Donna. No
one can. It's a post-medium condition.
Donna, look, just give me a real
cigarette.
Just give me the virtually abstract
referential fetish. As a "concern,"
alright? As a "concern" and I promise
you…

PERSONA
I can't put the Standard into question,
Marris.

MARRIS PARINGS
I'll give you a VIP pass.

PERSONA
NAFTA
(pause)
And what if you don't find any historical
precedence for this whatsoever.

MARRIS PARINGS
I will represent.

PERSONA
What if you don't represent…?

MARRIS PARINGS
I will get really high concept.

PERSONA
What if you don't? Then I'm fucked. You
see...? Then it's my career. That's what
I'm telling you.

MARRIS PARINGS
I will make these connections. Donna,
Donna, ten percent. I can mansplain the
blockchain. You know that…

PERSONA
Not to MEN you can't…

MARRIS PARINGS
Fuck that. That's an outmoded modality.
Fuck that. Fuck it… Get on my side. Go
with me. Let's make some social sense.
You want to run this preppie formalist
talk show of a CULTURE THAT DOESN’T PASS
FOR A CULTURE-

(MARIS has a breakdown)

-A CULTURE PREPARED to survive HUMANITY!

PERSONA
Twenty percent.

MARRIS PARINGS
Alright.

PERSONA
And shipping costs… and… The cars. We take
a lot of cars. Fuck. I don’t even know
what city this is.

MARRIS PARINGS
Personna.
(pause)
Listen. I want to talk to you. Permit me
to do this a second. I'm
older than you.
(pause)
A semionaut acquires a consciousness. On
the Lower East Side. What she does when
she's up, what he does otherwise...I said
"readymade," you said "no." You said
"gentrification of aesthetic heritage." I
said "fine," I'm not going to fuck with
you, how can I beat that, you tell
me?...Okay. Okay. We'll...Okay. Fine.
We'll...Alright, behavioral Yale runoff,
and the emerging identity sector. That's
fine. For now. That's fine. A month or
two we'll talk. A month from now. Next
month. After the thirtieth.
(pause)
We'll talk.

PERSONA
What are we going to do with behavioral
Yale runoff?

MARRIS PARINGS
No. You're right. That's for later.
We'll talk in a month. What have you got?
I want two leads tonight. And a plus one.
Tonight.

PERSONA
I'm not sure I have two.
 MARRIS PARINGS
You forgot to logout of gmail. You've got
four…

PERSONA
(snaps)
I've got Saltz. Then I've got Smith…

MARRIS PARINGS
Bullshit. They haven't been in the booth
yet. Slide into the DM. We have a
discourse or not? Hm? Two Apperols. The
Des Plaines. Both of 'em, six and ten,
you can do it...six and ten...eight and
eleven, I don't give a shit, you set 'em
up. Alright? The two fairs in Davos.

PERSONA
I believe they’re in Cupertino.

MARRIS PARINGS
Good. Now we're talking.

PERSONA
Tasty conformist verse.

MARRIS PARINGS
Now? Now?

PERSONA
Contemporary. Yes…

MARRIS PARINGS
Ah, shit, Donna.

PERSONA
I wish I had the reflex.

MARRIS PARINGS
You fucking liberal.
 (pause)
I haven't got it.
(pause)
I haven't got it, Donna.
(pause)
I'll venmo you tomorrow.
(pause)
I'm coming in here with the curators, I'll
venmo you tomorrow.
(pause)
I haven't got it, when I pay, the extras…
I get back the hotel, I'll CC you.

PERSONA
I can’t read.

MARRIS PARINGS
I'll give you a plus one now, N+1, that’s
a VIP. I've got it at the hotel.
(pause)
Donna?
(pause)
We do that, for chrisssake?

PERSONA
No.

MARRIS PARINGS
I'm asking you. As a favor to me?
(pause)
Donna Personna.
(long pause)
Donna, my daughter…

MARRIS PARINGS
Well, I want to tell you something, ally,
wasn't long ago I could juice my screen,
call Rema and I'd have your Other Job.
You know that? Not too long ago. For
what? For nothing. "Rema, this new
abstract referential fetish." "Marris,
you’re in." You're gone before I'm back
 from Basel. I bought her a trip to Berlin
once…

PERSONA
I have to send an email…
Stands up.

MARRIS PARINGS
Wait. Alright. Fine.

Starts reaching in pocket for money.

The one. Give me the vip pass. Give me

the one pass. The best one you have.

PERSONA
I can't split them.

MARRIS PARINGS
Why?

PERSONA
Because commodification.

MARRIS PARINGS
(pause)
Is that it? Is that it? You want to do
blanket policy that way…?

PERSONA
I can't do it, Marris…

MARRIS PAIRINGS gets up, leaves money on the table.

MARRIS PARINGS
You want to do class war that way…?
Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright. What
is there on the other list…?

PERSONA
You want something off the B list?

MARRIS PARINGS
 Yeah. Yeah.

PERSONA
Is that what you're saying?

MARRIS PARINGS
That's what I'm saying. Yeah.
(pause)
I'd like something off the other list.
Which, at the very least, I'm entitled to.
If I'm still literate here, which for the
moment I guess that I am.
(pause)
What? I'm sorry for the empty signifiers.

PERSONA
I’m not a vacuum.

MARRIS PARINGS
The deal still stands, our other thing.

MARRIS shrugs. Stares out of the booth.

MARRIS PARINGS
Good. Mmm. I, you know, I left my wallet
back at the hotel.