the official bureau of disempowerment
2017


 performance, 20’

wood frame, translucent white fabric, stamp, and ink
 
berlin, germany
a 2-by-2-by-2m architectural volume is sliced from an unknown institution and put under the microscope. how can a simple cube complicate the life of a person? routine bureaucratic activities turn into vicious torture equipment that build segregation and frustration. the project investigates actions required to pass or fail bureaucratic inspection through sound and performance. this performance stages bureaucracy as a system of absurd control. a 2×2×2m architectural volume—sliced from an unknown institution and put under the microscope—becomes a translucent cube where routine procedures transform into mechanisms of segregation and frustration. hidden inside, i embodied a commanding bureaucrat, addressing the audience through a megaphone. participants were asked to form and reform lines based on shifting criteria—gender, age, eye color—entering a cycle of confusion that exposed the violence embedded in everyday bureaucratic rituals. Through satire, the performance invesitages actions required to pass or fail bureaucratic inspections. 



“voyeurs performers don’t act directly in front of the public. they are entrapped within the exhibiting apparatus, a closed white cube of 8m³ (2m by 2m by 2m) from which spectators are excluded. the audience is put in the position to think about their place in the viewing process. they are given the possibility to interact–peep, look, touch–with the structure separating them from the performer or they can decide not to and surrender their ability to see, possibly letting their other senses take over their experience of the performance.

during the month of performance art-berlin, voyeurs explored the accidental interactions that can arise from random encounters between the work and its possible audience; thus focusing on the public as the–or a– performer and the idea of the audience as a canvas for action and reaction”

– excerpt from program overview


full video





part of voyeurs performance series, commissioned by zona dynamic and vincent chomaz for berlin art week 2017

within the exhibtion program
mind the space:raumohneraum, at kunstpunkt, berlin.


travel supported by moving mena mobility grant, goethe-institut kairo


photos: benjamin renter

video documentation/editing and cover video still: willis anne
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