Self Questioning II

THE DENIAL OF SELF QUESTIONING II

Leaf piece Nr. 3

… is a statement about art-doing. It is the refusal of explanation of artistic work. 

Art is for people. And the work clarifies itself to them on its own terms…or not. 

It remains mysterious, tolerates many constructions or is simply in the space between, where a notion wins concreteness.

At the same time this is a description about the possibility of art development. In this case the performance has its origin in previous art works and stays as transient happening at the end of the row.

Do we go even further back we reach the origin of all creativity and making: it is the delight to go for discovery and play and the desire to understand life and make it manageable…and may it be just for oneself.

The quest for meaning, the explanation and interpretation falls to the audience.

What ever will happen…open are all ways.

I / we appreciate all thoughts and comments.

The performance:

We started at 2pm in Berlin at the bridge Maybachufer / corner Ohlauer Str. and moved from there over the market on Maybachufer, crossing Kottbusser Damm always along the water towards Urbanhafen.

I had myself sewed in a duvet cover filled with dried leaves. In this sack I rolled over the whole distance about 1,5 km. Four companions showed me with sticks the way and prevented danger of all kind. It took us about 3,5, hours.

Voices of people who have seen and experienced it from the outside:

She won`t survive, said a Turkish woman on Kottbusser Damm, where also exhaust emissions accumulated. Many seemed to suffer with you, mainly in the second and third hour. At the beginning still many were laughing. For me it was fascinating, especially the reactions of all the different people on the market.

As sharp stones and small broken pieces of glass appeared, the leaves already less and the cover oily and dirty, I experienced it as pretty extreme. I was suffering as well….The length was hard to cope with. But on the other side your body shapes and movements became more visible. But the creatural of being brought on to the market as I felt it was there from the beginning. A man on a bicycle, who turned out being a writer, associated attending a deportation. An Italian Woman with a child exclaimed enthused: ´E  l´amore per l´arte!`. 

I am asking myself how you felt in the sack….

My first few impressions were these:

a sentence came to my mind, or really a set of words which I rearranged a few times.

The bed sheet bleeds autumn.

The bed bleeds autumn.

The bed is bleeding autumn.

The bed sheet is bleeding autumn.  

I felt a question answered in my head.  We make art to share it.  Art is supposed to be shared.  

I almost detest those who ask why do you invite an audience.  Because sharing is fun, and art is meant to be shared.

I thought about the guy who said "I don't think that's allowed."  He seemed very concerned.  Being allowed to do things has come up a lot for me in the past weeks.  Just why are we not allowed??  Why do I not feel allowed to do many things, but I am very allowed to do other things? 

Your presence was appreciable although we did not see you!!!

I was very taken with it. I magined something happening with water at that place…strange.

Yes, and then all the astonished observers and confusions of the market people, the environment…a good place.

Your guides were so concentrated and your movements fluent.

And your energy! I hope you still  could use your body after this borderline experience.

Many thanks for this very special experience!

What a fantastic process. Was that not painful to roll such a distance and the leaves you had as a cushion, but might not have helped a lot.

Congratulations, it is so satisfying to have made a work what matters...

Awesome, like bodies in India, being wrapped in a sheet and carried through the streets to the burning ghat

Person in leaves coating, eldritch, archaic, thankfully also funny. Cool!

Who wants to know what I experienced might read the first Text about Nothing from Samuel Beckett.

with Paula Chesley, Evan Foster, Tyler Ray and Jonas Wentritt

Photos: Karin Preisser

2014, Berlin, Germany