If life is our longest endurance performance with a beginning and an end, then we acknowledge our responsibility, as performers, to create moment after moment. The conscious choice to create becomes an attempt to overcome the limits of the personal sphere and strive for collectiveness and timelessness.
In Pause, the artist repeatedly counts down from 10 to 1, loudly, in anticipation. Just like in theatre, action rises; the climax leads the quest into time’s unknown possibilities. The unavoidable reference to New Year's countdown, the bomb that is about to explode, the rocket that will fly into space, the green sign waiting to light up at a pedestrian crossing, the anti-climactic – or even climactic – pauses produced in between are at the centre of the work. Each repetition allows a series of unexpected emotions to occur, surrendering to constant flux and its own vanity.
The public is inevitably affected. No line divides the work from everyday life, calling for and embracing participation. The meditative performance instruction is executed as a statement; it remains static in the centre of the Plaza, informed by and reacting to the surroundings, readily anticipating change.
Artists Dimitris Chimonas
12 06 2019 14:00