Mortality Table (Tablice smrtnosti)

Marija Mojca Pungerčar's project Mortality Table consists of a batch of hand-made
chocolate bars. A graphic image – data on the life expectancy of men and women
– has been moulded onto the chocolate. The Mortality Table project is
named after an actuarial table that shows, for a person at each age, the
probability of surviving any particular year of age. Life expectancy for men
and women is calculated separately. This table is used by insurance companies
to calculate life annuities. According to the statistics, women outlive men.
Insurance companies use this as an excuse to pay out lower pensions to women
even though they make the same payments for the same number of years as men.
The project aims to inform through pleasure. The
calculations imprinted on chocolate are based on the DAV 1994R table, which the
Slovenian insurance companies are obliged to use. With this project Marija
Mojca Pungerčar calls your attention
to the way the insurance industry uses demographic statistics, which she feels
is a form of hidden discrimination against women in capitalism. (Marija Mojca
Pungerčar)

Organisation: City of Women; In collaboration with:
Škuc Gallery, KUD Trivia