Action: The audience enters a dark space to find the artist standing on a black shelf on the wall, raised from the floor at the only lit spot, wearing a sky-pattern suit that nods to the paintings of Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Allowing for the audience to settle, the artist looks into the space, before reaching into the right side of his suit to reveal a piece of cotton. Holding it with his extended left arm, the artist places the cotton ball in his palm and blows at it with his mouth. He cuts out a number of cotton balls from the suit’s inside lining and blows each of them in a different direction, in order to reach audience members by repeating this process. As none of the cotton balls can directly reach audience members, the artist stares at each piece that has fallen onto the floor, before descending from the shelf. He collects one of the balls and places it onto his raised left arm, directly upon one of the printed suit clouds. By using a lighter, the artist sets the cotton on fire, allowing for it to turn completely black, as he walks amongst audience members, formulating a smoke cloud around him. Once the cotton has been completely burnt, the artist climbs back onto the shelf, takes off his jacket and hangs it on a hook at his right and then takes off his pants, hanging them on a hook at his left. He sits onto the shelf in his white undergarments and the space’s light changes into a spotlight placed directly above him. Opening up a cigarette pack that he had taken out of his pants, the artist lights up a cigarette and attempts to blow clouds into the audience. Finishing the cigarette and allowing for the smoke clouds to disappear, the artist raises his left palm, extinguishes the burning bud at the palm’s center, closes his fist and descends onto the floor, in order to walk through audience members and exit the space.

Skyporn

Performance / Part of festival "Trouble #10" curated by Antoine Pickels / Studio Thor / Brussels - BE / May - 2019 / Duration: 45'

Material: artist’s body, sky-pattern suit, cotton, cigarette pack, lighter, black hooks, black shelf

Photo: Michel Christelbach