Process Documentation, March 2013 Transformation of Border House: stages, their definitions and other terms related In order to observe (the transformation of) my process I created the following text, I hope, you find useful: I. Border House definitions Border House: *Short: lived space; social embodied product; space observed as process. 1. 1st- Definition of 2012: Border House (1): a space for writing about borders, performing borders, thinking about structures and a space for inviting people to experience, share and perform borders (performance can be seen as a personal act of a transgression within one’s self, erasing violent past to make grounds for reimagining once environment); 2. 2nd-Current definition: Border House (2): is the physical space where I live and invite people from different backgrounds to (creatively) move through it by bringing states of mind, actions, and structures of their own imagination that will improve the space and the life of those living here; ‘Border House’ is the physical space where I live and invite people from different backgrounds to improve the space and the life of those living in the house. By inviting people in the physical space where I live, I aim to create spaces for the encounter with people from different backgrounds and collect a mixture of their live acts. Until today, my process accumulates multiple pieces in the form of acts of help and gifts contributed by people. Visitors and I question the moments at which those acts become real and artistic - are useful psychological and physical improvements according to the needs of the ‘here and now’. ‘Border House’ is inspired by my personal experience of living in Greece for the last 10 years as an auslander in a new territory and as a crosser fusing the boundaries and the border-identities we experience through live actions, language, and the acts of crossing between those. It is also the result of my interest to invent a space for experimentation through performative and sculptural approaches. 3. 3rd-Future/Possible definition: Border House (3) will seek people willing to come and help me build a house within a house (house outside of a house) including many actual structural and physical improvements which I see at the moment as multiple pieces and structures contributed by different people. This includes building things inside the house through cracks and unused spaces all around it. It is the stage of contesting and defying one’s own imagination. I see those acts as social interactions that could provide ways to engage with utopia. It is preceded by the act of thinking creatively about how to modify the space and visualizing it as opposed to physical changes. After the release of one’s own imagination, a person physically engages with his vision-the imagined physical improvement and thus focuses on the actualization and the physicality of it;
II. Example Documentation of a visitor’s action Please, copy paste the link in a new tab and load, instead of clicking on it here http://issuu.com/rosinaivanova/docs/bathroom_action_by_nikos_gikas_at_ border_house_mar?mode=window III. Border House now 1) Everyday acts, naturalness of acts versus the feeling of the house as a performative stage As a result of what visitors bring me and what they do when they come, I now have the sense of everyday actions. Those are acts of gifts, food sharing, visitors cooking and cleaning, yet, all those actions are a kind of a statement of the visitors. I have turned to look at the naturalness of the actions and thereof when, how and why an everyday action becomes art. Even though, most actions are everyday acts of gifts and help, I observe how two of the young performance artists (Border House’s current regular visitors) are using the space as a performative venue. They enter and they start cleaning, cooking, and not talking as rigorous performative acts as if they are on a stage. 2) Unforeseen future I however, do not have an idea what people will bring in ‘Border House’ in the future and will decide to do- this is challenging in foreseeing to put together many different pieces of an unknown nature. I see an indeterminate transformation processes arising from continuity. 3) Dreamt future: Seeing bridges extending from my balcony and towers coming out of the ceiling, up in the air When I don’t have visitors, I dream about constructing actual structures like actual sculptural formations inside and around the house IV. Key concepts related: long term project documentation multiplicity 1 multimodality2 1 multiplicity:
is the natural state through which we (humans) experience reality. It is the putting together of many realities and communicating the method. Multiplicity is ephemeral, difficult to capture, challenging to document. Within this, one can tolerate ambiguity as creative states but sustain degree(s) of communication. *Short: the natural way in which humans experience reality; 2 Multimodality: This approach focuses on the relationship between people and the space in which they are located at a given moment in time. It is people’s experience of space: what they do and with whom, what they feel and how they make sense of the physical world. It focuses on social dimensions of space with attention to the physical dimensions of space as a sign of the social and the physical dimensions of an action as a sign of the social. In this way space is understood as a social embodied product as much as place, and as much as action. It is concerned with how people re-arrange and modify space and its elements through intentional action. It is the understanding of ‘place’ as fluid, dynamic (lived) and transformative, ‘space’ as a lived instance of the environment and ‘action’ as an experience of a concept.
everyday art- small acts of help, gifts, conversations physical experience of space experience of concept improvement audience taking over versus visitors accommodating me V. Notes on presenting Border House Continuity of concepts involved 2012-2013 Relationships between concepts Documenting the movement from one concept to another, part of an experimental structure to house multiple concepts Creating a structure based on multiple pieces Yet a structure that is flexible and open and allows for the unknown to come in Putting pieces of different nature together Collection of viewpoints Creating access points for people from different backgrounds Collecting rather than displaying or negotiating People putting themselves in a position to improve a space and the life of others Visitors accommodating the inhabitants (reverse) Audience- artist Interactive strategy Learning through listening to people, watching and collecting their actions Finding a structure to house diverse actions What is improvement? How does it change when added the word creativity to improvement? What is the political significance of improvement? What is the political significance of each act people bring? How can we translate each act?