To Get There (2018)

In the Temporary Art Centre in Eindhoven at our exhibition In Touch from the minor Arts & Interaction I opened the exhibition with a performance.
A crowd of family, friends and other visitors of the exposition gathered in the first space of our show. I handed out two types of masks to the public. One was see-through, the other reflective.
The see-through mask makes a face look a bit blurry: the observer needs more effort to truly see somebody. With the other mask the observer gets to see themselves. There's always something you can recognize of yourself in another person.

The people that accepted a mask were now participators.
A few people were my secret agents in this performance, who knew where I wanted to go and how. I wanted to create a bond between people and challenge them to move or even dance in a context that usually doesn't allow for that kind of behavior.

First me and the performers started to walk around in the space, and so did the participants. Then we started giving high-fives, and so did the participants.
Then we hooked on - arm in arm - to another person with a mask.
We were now coupled up and began a one on one relationship with another stranger.

From this moment it became more fragile, as we wanted to go even further but the tension also grew a bit bigger. Some were able to hold hands and dance a little awkwardly. Others thought that was nice, but also enough.
Gradually this is how the performance came to an end.