Can the artist speak? – a pedagogical performance
Ana-Maria Hadji-Culea
Tuesday 14 May 2013
9pm

The evening is dedicated to difficulties of speech.

An artist at work with paintbrush and a palette on a portrait of the patron – a bourgeois, middle-aged gentleman in a wing chair. It might have been finished since long. As it sits on the easel, adorned with a floral frame, it was surely destined for a drawing room. A fly makes a landing on the gentleman’s nose.

The artist exclaims:

- For heaven’s sake, monsieur, don’t move your hands or you’ll lose the pose!…

Without any further ado, the patron’s mouth zips up. Things then get more complicated, as the artist becomes indebted to a range of professionals, keen on representing, with speech that is shaped up by distribution fever.

I couldn’t help but wonder, can the artist speak?

With aid from Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard, Örn Alexander Ámundason, Kah Bee Chow, Jeuno JE Kim, Henning Lundkvist, Liv Strand and Megan Francis Sullivan to answer the question.