Proposal for ANTI festival
Let It Flow, 2008
Proposed for the RÖNÖ Bridge site.
I would enlist local residents and any interested parties to be participants in the project. The group meets at beginning end of bridge. Each person is given a red fabric smock. Several constructed wooden signs painted red and a red flag are also distributed. The group crosses over the bridge in a form of parade or march. Once on the other side, each person exchanges the red smocks, signs and flags for green ones and everyone returns back across the expanse. The processional is recorded on video, to be displayed in a storefront window or exhibition space for the duration of the festival. I would also post it to my website for a period of one year. A possible live television broadcast on a local station, or a webcast on the internet, could be arranged.
My work involves the interpretation of symbolic gestures and material arrangements that foster double readings based on a viewer’s own socio-political background and understanding. This performative work will also encourage such interpretations. The color red represents the infusion of energy and blood that was put forth to connect the community with the island. The color green embodies the benefit returned to the population by way of the rewards that the connection with nature gives to the lives of the people. Possible double readings/meanings come into play in several ways: the color exchange could be seen as blood for money; signs can suggest advertisment, protest march or political rally or even real estate; flags symbolize nation/state either as power for good or as purveyor of war. These readings and combinations of them and others make the piece fluid and potent. An open forum for discussion could be held immediately after, so the participants and observers can talk about their impressions and garner insights from others.
David Borawski
Proposal for ANTI festival
Let It Flow, 2008
Proposed for the RÖNÖ Bridge site.
I would enlist local residents and any interested parties to be participants in the project. The group meets at beginning end of bridge. Each person is given a red fabric smock. Several constructed wooden signs painted red and a red flag are also distributed. The group crosses over the bridge in a form of parade or march. Once on the other side, each person exchanges the red smocks, signs and flags for green ones and everyone returns back across the expanse. The processional is recorded on video, to be displayed in a storefront window or exhibition space for the duration of the festival. I would also post it to my website for a period of one year. A possible live television broadcast on a local station, or a webcast on the internet, could be arranged.
My work involves the interpretation of symbolic gestures and material arrangements that foster double readings based on a viewer’s own socio-political background and understanding. This performative work will also encourage such interpretations. The color red represents the infusion of energy and blood that was put forth to connect the community with the island. The color green embodies the benefit returned to the population by way of the rewards that the connection with nature gives to the lives of the people. Possible double readings/meanings come into play in several ways: the color exchange could be seen as blood for money; signs can suggest advertisment, protest march or political rally or even real estate; flags symbolize nation/state either as power for good or as purveyor of war. These readings and combinations of them and others make the piece fluid and potent. An open forum for discussion could be held immediately after, so the participants and observers can talk about their impressions and garner insights from others.
David Borawski