FOLLOWING PIECE (Time/ Space patrol) Warsaw 2008.
performance
During a 3-month residency in Warsaw, I began to explore the practice of performative writing in public spaces as a tool of observation. I realized that the Warsaw police were doing the same thing: extensively writing notes while on patrol. That led to an interest in their motivations and behavior. I started following them on their patrols, conspicuously observing them, taking notes and photographing them in an attempt to address and invert the power relations that the public presence of uniformed authorities implies.
During a perfomance, (which has a reference to the Vito Acconci piece of the same title) I followed a police patrol in the center of Warsaw, until they became aware of my presence and approached me asking for my documents.
This shifting of the positions of surveyor and surveyed is additionally a humorous reversal of gender positions: a single woman trailing a small group of uniformed men.
During a 3-month residency in Warsaw, I began to explore the practice of performative writing in public spaces as a tool of observation. I realized that the Warsaw police were doing the same thing: extensively writing notes while on patrol. That led to an interest in their motivations and behavior. I started following them on their patrols, conspicuously observing them, taking notes and photographing them in an attempt to address and invert the power relations that the public presence of uniformed authorities implies.
During a perfomance, (which has a reference to the Vito Acconci piece of the same title) I followed a police patrol in the center of Warsaw, until they became aware of my presence and approached me asking for my documents.
This shifting of the positions of surveyor and surveyed is additionally a humorous reversal of gender positions: a single woman trailing a small group of uniformed men.