contextual, unrehearsed group performance
with selected objects and images . 2016

For an end of term project during my MFA, I chose a space in Concordia University’s V.A. building basement as a performative site and used the slightly surreal context of our usual critiques as a starting point. My goal was to set up a completely staged moment, a “private art piece” to be experienced with a specific selection of people, in this case, the Intermedia group and faculty as well as the external guests who were present that day. Previously, I had written a script for an illusional and theatrical group critique of some of my artworks. At the beginning of the exercise, each participant received a copy of the scenario and were asked to play their own character, saying what had been written for them at indicated times. The script enforced a fake discussion about anything that I felt like talking about — from sometimes pointless matters to metaphorical survival issues. The predetermined conversation of which we were the protagonists brought us to talk about typical, yet universal questions regarding beauty, perception, accomplishment, belief, extinction — while allowing itself to drift around the art world mannerism and the history of the V.A. building. All of this was implicitly demonstrated through the imitation of a real critique, in which imposed impressions and questions were being raised about actual works set up in the space according to an imaginary logic. By creating this uncanny, custom-made and ephemeral experience, I kind of wanted everybody to be collectively stuck in an unreal interaction with each other, with the space, and with the displayed objects. I wanted to distort an oddly familiar situation, to critically address topics of obedience, vulnerability and confidence and, somehow, ask : “are these fabricated things considered art, junk, commodity, masterpieces, jokes, mise en abyme, decoration, illusory props or validation of truth ?”.

I chose not to record or film the actual performance, which I regard as a private art piece. The experience was to be shared by a restricted group of people, for whom I wrote a custom script. Traces of the project can be discovered by reading the scenario and viewing some photos, but apart from that, I am happy with the idea that the complete story will be kept in participants’ memory and only spread by word-of-mouth.