LENA GROSSMANN

How do I look at another body? How do I evaluate what I see? What do I expect as a spectator from a performance? What do I assume? What are my personal criteria? What do I not want to see? What do I like to identify with?

__The performance addresses the moment of the observing body, the spectator. Expectations, viewing habits, insecurities and the resulting power structures between performer and spectator are at the centre of the work. These physical effects are particularly relevant in our interbodily interactions. The “consumer behaviour of the gaze” observed here is questioned, and the potential and personal responsibility associated with one’s own gaze is made tangible.

In the first part of the performance WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SEE?, visitors are invited to select a ceramic object from a larger collection and take it home on loan until the second part of the performance – ON BEING WATCHED. The ceramics become placeholders and communication objects, creating a connection between the physical memory of the performance and the expectation of its future continuation.

This latest work by Lena Grossmann is created in the context of her expanded artistic field MIMETIC BODIES, which deals with questions of inter-corporeal processes of imitation. Within the works created for this purpose, the question of the moment of the observing body became increasingly central. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SEE? – ON BEING WATCHED thematically ties in with this work.