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If not Us, Who? If not Now, When?
living sculpture
2010



If not Us, Who? If not Now, When? is a pageant of a street protest frozen in time and space. The performers hold a still pose and mime a street demonstration resembling the street marches, strikes and revolts that usually lead to revolution. The living monument shows a riot with protesters simulating a mass protest. Similarly to street mimes playing living sculptures, this group manifestation also makes a move when a passer-by throws a coin into a bowl. The "demonstrators" are animated by the viewers and the whole group moves as if frame-by-frame, creating a phased, slow and controlled motion, simulating vigorous marching and spontaneous gestures. The protest as such becomes a scenario, a rehearsed choreography activated by a financial transaction. The economic aspect of the whole act alludes to crisis, deficits and recession, while the title If not Us, Who? If not Now, When? connotes revolutionary spirit and mass uprising. The whole tableau vivant speaks about the illusoriness of subversion, about the controlled condition of the public space and the economic relations that create invisible ground and rules hidden behind each apparently spontaneous act.


performance in the streets of Komarno, Slovakia, 2010





performance at Kampnagel theatre, Hamburg, Germany, 2013

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