Boxes 2 Outfits

From the series “Boxes” and “Outfits”
 
Prozedere
All of my personal garments with which  I travelled to Belfast are forming a mound in the foyer of the Ulster Museum for Art and History. On my head is a square box, made out of mirrors. Blind, I repeatedly climb the staircase with a length of rope in my hands. When I arrive at the balcony of the galleries, I take off one piece of my clothing, tie it to the rope and tie the rope to the balustrade.
Than I let it slide down. This I repeat with every piece of clothing, including the shoes. For every garment I use the lift to go down and then climb the stairs with a new piece of rope. When I am down to my underwear, I go to the mound of garments and choose a new piece of clothing. This action continues for the whole period of the 6 hour long  performance. More and more garments are hanging from the balconies.With my last dress, a red robe, I climb up the stairs for a last time, tie the dress  on a very long piece of rope on the highest floor let it slide down to the floor. Then I walk down all the stairs, almost nude.
 
 
Concept
How does Performance Art fit in the Museum?
 
Exchanging my daily outfits and wearing a geometric construction, I fix the relics of the performance and my daily life on the architecture of the museum. I use the stairs and the elevator to interconnect different levels with their various multi-faceted aspects, in order to create new perspectives on the museum’s collections. In this performance I combine for the first time my series “Boxes”, in which I deal with sensuality in performance art, with my series “outfits”, where different garments from my own wardrobe are used to propose stereotypical attitudes/times, thereby holding up a mirror to the visitors.
Half naked and blinded by my mirror head I have trouble to find my way up the stairs to fix the different garments on the balustrades of the balconies. Helpless, I surrender to the rules – the handrails are leading me- of the museum.
 
Does Performance Art belong in a Museum?
March 2016
Bbeyond INTER – BEIING
long duration in performance art
Ulster Museum
Belfast, Ireland

Pics: Rainer Belfast