Performance Documentation

Performance Documentation (for preview only) from Kok & Deiman on Vimeo.
The performance and installation Demarcation; A Description by R. Brothers is centered around a wooden board which is divided into small sections of equal size. During the performance, a variety of colored wooden pieces is placed on and around the board. The actions of the performers, who place and move the pieces on the board, create unexpected mechanical sounds. This way a composition of colors, lines and sound is obtained. After the performance, the board and its environment are left as a static installation.

The performance can be seen as a strategic game, of which the rules remain obscure to the audience. This obscurity gives the audience the freedom to discover their own correlations in the actions and choices the performers have made. Because of the abstract forms and rules of play, associations with topics such as city planning, battlefields or statistics are brought to mind. Furthermore the installation is adapting, abstracting and ridiculing various codes of sports and games, while transforming the white cube into an abstract gaming arena. Besides the board, the installation includes an umpire chair, strange game equipments, colored gym floor lines, sports uniforms with a logo of an aardvark (our mascot) and a real (stuffed) aardvark.

The origin of the wooden game board derives from a copper engraving of a city plan. This plan was designed by religious maniac Richard Brothers to illustrate his radical visions for his book A Description of Jerusalem (1801). Fragments of his remarkable biography can be found in various media (i.e. wall text, video) throughout the installation.