From Nothing
From Nothing presented in November 2013 at the Afiriperfoma First Biennial of African Performance and Live Art in the Faculty of Art of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.
The action was as minimal as possible, involving no material whatsoever, and still it managed to make an impact in that specific situation. The optimal use of the space, the inclusion of the audience and the suspense in timing brought this action as close as I can imagine to a pure form of ephemeral action.
It all started from nothing. The great Afiriperfoma Biennial turned out to be a farce. Almost no artists from Africa, a few from outside and no organizer present. I turned my disappointment into an appointment to present an art action at one of the first days without knowing what to do. No plan, no idea. Just the decision to go with whatever is there.
In the morning there were lectures as they are presented nowadays: powerpoint presentations in a dark room with everybody staring at a screen. The audience in neat rows waiting for what will roll over them and trying to respond in an intelligent way.
When it was my turn the audience was back to its place, staring at the empty screen. I opened the curtains to let the light flood in, took a bench with four seats, placed it behind the audience and said "I have no idea what to do" and repeated that in four different languages.
Then I took the seats from the audience, putting all the chairs along the walls of the room, thereby creating a huge space in the middle. There I placed two tables close to each other, leaving a space of ca. 10 cm. I asked the audience to come as close as it fitted for them individually and drew a curvy line along their feet.
It made me thirsty. I took a sip from a bottle of water and another to empty it. I placed the bottle on the floor between the tables and climbed on top of the tables. Standing straight I tried to spit the water - and the saliva - back into the bottle. The flow seemed to be endless but very little found its way into the bottle. When my mouth was empty I jumped from the table, checked the contents of the bottle and swallowed it.
The action was as minimal as possible, involving no material whatsoever, and still it managed to make an impact in that specific situation. The optimal use of the space, the inclusion of the audience and the suspense in timing brought this action as close as I can imagine to a pure form of ephemeral action.
It all started from nothing. The great Afiriperfoma Biennial turned out to be a farce. Almost no artists from Africa, a few from outside and no organizer present. I turned my disappointment into an appointment to present an art action at one of the first days without knowing what to do. No plan, no idea. Just the decision to go with whatever is there.
In the morning there were lectures as they are presented nowadays: powerpoint presentations in a dark room with everybody staring at a screen. The audience in neat rows waiting for what will roll over them and trying to respond in an intelligent way.
When it was my turn the audience was back to its place, staring at the empty screen. I opened the curtains to let the light flood in, took a bench with four seats, placed it behind the audience and said "I have no idea what to do" and repeated that in four different languages.
Then I took the seats from the audience, putting all the chairs along the walls of the room, thereby creating a huge space in the middle. There I placed two tables close to each other, leaving a space of ca. 10 cm. I asked the audience to come as close as it fitted for them individually and drew a curvy line along their feet.
It made me thirsty. I took a sip from a bottle of water and another to empty it. I placed the bottle on the floor between the tables and climbed on top of the tables. Standing straight I tried to spit the water - and the saliva - back into the bottle. The flow seemed to be endless but very little found its way into the bottle. When my mouth was empty I jumped from the table, checked the contents of the bottle and swallowed it.
photo: trésor malaya
First AFiRIperFOMA Biennial Performance 7 Live Art Festival in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe
8 - 22 November 2013
A biennial of African contemporary performance/live art is indispensable as a way of replenishing the visual culture of performance in the African continent. 1st AFiRIperFOMA Biennial will mainly focus on the African continent, the culture and its people, as observed by artists through a contemporary visual outlook. This first African contemporary performance art biennial will aim at inspiring the participants and the world at large to appreciate contemporary performance art in Africa.
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