DOO performing arts group ENG
“Our body is not in space like things; it inhabits or haunts space. /.../ For us the body is much more than an instrument or a means; it is our expression in the world, the visible form of our intentions. Even our most secret affective movements, those most deeply tied to the humoral infrastructure, help to shape our perception of things.”1 (Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. C. Smith, trans. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p. 64.)
A performer is a virtuosic worker (P. Virno) whose activity does not take an external form of permanent final products, but has a goal in itself and it should take the place in the presence of others. The act of a performer is an inter-subjective dialog between his body-his self and the viewer or as Bonifati exposes: “The spectator/voyeur (spying or not) is the one, who allows my awareness to gain altitude.” Bonifati has in the scope of his Maribor residency continued with his series of five minutes performances in toilets, which in this case he performed in the framework of so called Toilet project by curatorial collective Rezidenca Maistrova, on the public toilets in Maribor marketplace. It is an intimate performance for one to a maximum of two spectators at once based on the performers “abduction” of the selected viewer. An intimate performance takes place in the dark accompanied by a loud music, the entire work is divided into sequences that correspond to the inter-subjective exchange between the artist and the individual spectator. The classic voyeur position of the viewer is twisted, the viewer finds himself in the unpredictable and therefore somewhat uncomfortable situation, and he is “seduced” in artist’s world so the artist can start his own process of self-exploration.
Text: Kaja Kraner
A performer is a virtuosic worker (P. Virno) whose activity does not take an external form of permanent final products, but has a goal in itself and it should take the place in the presence of others. The act of a performer is an inter-subjective dialog between his body-his self and the viewer or as Bonifati exposes: “The spectator/voyeur (spying or not) is the one, who allows my awareness to gain altitude.” Bonifati has in the scope of his Maribor residency continued with his series of five minutes performances in toilets, which in this case he performed in the framework of so called Toilet project by curatorial collective Rezidenca Maistrova, on the public toilets in Maribor marketplace. It is an intimate performance for one to a maximum of two spectators at once based on the performers “abduction” of the selected viewer. An intimate performance takes place in the dark accompanied by a loud music, the entire work is divided into sequences that correspond to the inter-subjective exchange between the artist and the individual spectator. The classic voyeur position of the viewer is twisted, the viewer finds himself in the unpredictable and therefore somewhat uncomfortable situation, and he is “seduced” in artist’s world so the artist can start his own process of self-exploration.
Text: Kaja Kraner