Action: The artist exits his accommodation wearing a black hoodie over his head and holding a soccer ball under his right arm. He walks barefoot in the streets of the village Bazoches, reaching the yard of its church, where the audience is already located. Sitting onto ground, he places the ball next to him, and pulls under his sleeveless jumper a white sock with two black stripes at its top. Wearing the sock onto his right foot, he takes out a pair of scissors and cuts its top, in order to pull the sock up to his thigh. He continues this process with 5 sock pairs, pulling each sock up to the stripes of the previous one, in order to cover his whole right leg with stripes, wearing the last sock as it is. By placing his covered leg on top of the ball, he initiates a series of passes towards audience members. The viewers engage in a game of passing back the ball to the artist, running after the ball according to its location within the yard. Once this process has been completed, the artist sits down and uses the scissors to cut into the ball, tearing it into two pieces. He then takes off his hoodie, revealing his completely shaved head, and puts on the piece of ball fabric. By lying onto the floor face down, the artist situates his head at the feet of audience members. According to the audience’s reaction, the artist uses his hands to crawl towards the audience’s feet - if they are moving backwards, whilst others step on his head or choose to do nothing. After a period of time, the artist intensely continues to move around the ground face down, depending on the viewer’s position, before a member of the audience takes the ball fabric off his head, allowing him to exit the yard.

The Headmaster (Training for performance #3)

Performance / Part of poetry festival "Samedi poésie Dimanche aussi" curated by Geneviève Peigné & Jean-François Seron / Église Saint-Hilaire / Bazoches - FR / July - 2015 / Duration: 40'

Material: artist’s body, black shorts, black hoodie, soccer ball, scissors, 5 sock pairs, audience members

Photo: Michel Durigneux