2020

Part of Show Up – a one-day event on May 1 during which art projects, civic action, and performances appeared simultaneously in several parks around Brooklyn. Curated by Regine Basha and Birgit Rathsmann.

Participants were invited to sit on a piece of paper on a park bench and trace the outline of their seat. They were using Picto Betula pendula - a graphite stick attached to a short branch of silver birch (Betula pendula). The circular design of the cast-iron armrests in the 1939 New York World’s Fair park bench – ubiquitous to many New York City parks – was put into action as aperture to study the psychological and physiological dynamics of sitting. The resulting materials helped to compare the complexities of postural deviations and to discuss how they relate to notions of randomness, chance, and quantum causality. 

Each participant was given a printed certificate with the date and time of their participation, and a printed image of the bench, with a pencil drawing by one of the artists, of them in the act of sitting. The action was repeated for an hour in each park. The International Workers’ Day was reflected in a painted Socialist slogan in Russian, signed by Victor Skersis: НА РАБОТУ КАК НА ПРАЗДНИК! (GOING TO WORK IS LIKE GOING TO A PARTY!)

Materials & Actions:

A series of collaborative performances by Daniel Bozhkov, Victor Skersis, and many a passersby who chose to participate.

Locations: 

McCarren Park, Prospect Park, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY