who am I?

16.12.2017

Durational solo performance as part of CO-CREATION LIVE FACTORY Prologue 1, VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK; Palazzo Mora, Venice; Italy 

Start: 16:39 End: 20:59 Total: 4 hrs 20 min

Concept
Final day of the Performance Art Week in Palazzo Moro: Various artists present solo and group pieces developed during the Art Week to an audience that can stroll freely through the two floors open to the public. The artist approaches visitors with the simple question “Who am I? Chi sono io?” He notes down the answers on paper sheets or let the visitors note them down for him. Some answers are also recorded. Addressing the visitors with a curious urge and almost naïve interest the artist leaves the visitor in a double-bind situation. Trying to be supportive, to satisfy the curious need of the artist on the one hand, while at the same time being asked a question that only the inquirer can solve for himself. After all, not only the question itself is irritating. Irritating is also the fact that the visitors, that expect to walk through the space watching performances, are addressed themselves, thus being turned from a mere visitor to a constitutive part of a performance itself. The performance thus, even though it takes place in the building, enfolds itself on various places within this building and, even though there is the time frame of the overall duration, enfolds itself within the small time frames of the actual personal contacts with a visitors. After an initial phase of being puzzled many visitors come up with a more or less colorful persona for the artist in response to a question that also is at the very heart of a meaningful life. Am I living according to the prescriptions and codes of others (parents, religious communities, societal norms, etc.) or am I trying to find my own truth, my own freedom?