re-word

a participatory performance by Claudia Pilsl and Shirley Pegna 

re-word is a gently mocking nod to Ian Breakwell’s multi-media event unword (1969/70). As a performance it intersects a text with the seemingly simple action of tearing paper. To listen, to speak, to hear, to raise questions. The words are plain and spell out the key elements of any conversation. Only when brought together in ever changing combinations in the overhead back projection they reveal how interactions can be misaligned. The ripping of the precariously hung role of paper that functions as a makeshift screen creates a quiet yet piercing sound and appears at first haphazard and innocent. Yet when the noise increases with more and more people from the audience joining the artists on stage, it becomes apparent that these little acts of solidarity not only dismantle the surface of the projection. They ultimately also remove what has been said and with it, at least for now, a dysfunctional interaction ritual.

Part of BEEF WEEKENDER: Plays the Cube and BEEF Do Breakwell at Arnolfini autumn 2021

 documentary photographs by Mike Thomas