I Have to Leave

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_004aa

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_009a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_010a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_014a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_015a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_017aa

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_018a_adj

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_018a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_019a

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_021a_adj

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

blow8_sat_mary_seeds_023

I Have to Leave
durational performance
Blow!8
Ilsede, Germany
photo by Insa Wagner

Moving backwards slowly, sowing seeds. A red figure in a green landscape, disappearing into the distance.

event:
Blow! 8 International Performance Art Festival
venue:
Umformerstation Ilseder Hütte
location:
Ilsede, Germany
sponsor:
Ideenstiftungsverein e.V.
date:
May 2012

Project Notes:

I was the first artist performing on the second evening’s program at Blow!8. I wore a red dress, and was ready before the audience arrived, mingling with them as they came into the building, talking with friends and meeting others. Then I led them to the location in the field near the building. I held or shook everyone’s hand, saying hello. Once everyone had all gathered and I had finished greeting them, I said,
“I have to leave now. I am sorry, but you can’t follow me, you have to stay here.
I started slowly moving backwards away from them. I opened my bag and took out a seed envelope and began sowing a line of poppy seeds. I walked backwards for two hours, dropping a continuous line of seeds, disappearing into the distance across the field. My red dress stood out against the green of the grass, in the soft light of the end of day, and there were many bees hovering and humming around my feet. I watched the grass rise up again after I passed over it.
The audience watched me become smaller and smaller, then went to see other performances, and returned to watch me again, to see the progress of my disappearance. And of course I was watching them as well become tinier and tinier in the distance.
Helge Meyer, who organized the festival, will go to the site next year to check on the progress of the poppies, and photograph them for me. If they grow, there will be a line of red poppies across the field, and over the years they should spread… I am hoping that they really will grow and thrive, making it a truly durational performance.

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