A Balance Act

P.S. Den Haag, Quartair, The Hague NL
6 March 2015

This was for me the first time to perform in the town where I grew up: The Hague.
The theme of this festival was space. A wide topic. Thinking about The Hague and my young years I didn't feel space at all. Memories of a boring town by an insecure youngster. I chose tape as the main material for my performance. Tape and charcoal.

I started with taping my right shoe with the sticky side out. I made some steps. Nice sound. Then some tape around my left arm, and around two pillars of Quartair's space, all with the sticking side out.
On the floor I taped an irregular circle. Bordering a space. Or maybe the space was outside this border.
I taped a mirror to a pillar and started to "shave" my face and head with a piece of charcoal. A beard appeared, and hair on my otherwise bald head.
I walked the line, the borderline. Not as simple as it looked, Coming along the pillar the tape caught my arm. I had to tear myself loose. At the next pillar I avoided the tape contact.
After three rounds I felt confident enough to put up a blindfold. I asked the audience to tell me when I step beside the line. After two steps they shouted out. I took off the blindfold and indeed, I had missed the line. I bent and rearranged the tape towards my foot. I walked on but after another two steps I missed the line again.
I tore the tape off the floor and started to "clean" my face with the sticky side of the tape. With partial success.

photo: peter baren

Performance Site is an event in The Hague, the Netherlands, with twelve artists living in the Netherlands plus me, the Dutch guest from abroad...
I presented a performance on Friday 6 March, a lecture -Performance and Space- on Saturday and a workshop on Sunday.
Curated by Jolanda Jansen. The site of the P.S. event is here

All takes place in gallery Quartair, their site is here