In Kosovo

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In Kosovo
performance site
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Marilyn Arsem

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In Kosovo
performance site
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Marilyn Arsem

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In Kosovo
performance site
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Marilyn Arsem

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In Kosovo
performance site
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Marilyn Arsem

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

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In Kosovo
Aluminum Factory
Buenos Aires, Argentina
photo by Alexander del Re

Emerging from beneath a pile of aluminum scraps, to slowly crawl across the room and out through a dark doorway.

event:
In Transit/En Tránsito Primer Festival Internacional de Arte de Performance del Cono Sur
venue:
Centro Cultural IMPA La Fábrica
location:
Buenos Aires, Argentina
sponsor:
perfopuerto.org
date:
November 2004

Project Notes:

The second half of the In Transit/En Transito Festival took place in Argentina. I knew that the Foreign Policy III piece which I had just done in Chile was not really applicable to Argentina – it was too specific to the US’s relationship to Chile. So I arrived in Buenos Aires without an idea of what I would do for my performance.

The Festival was held in an aluminum factory. It was in a square block of connected buildings, still partially in use as a factory, but also housing a health clinic, adult education classes, and artists studios. We spent our first day exploring the sections of the building that were open to us, with rooms of abandoned machinery, hidden studios, and an unused cafeteria.

The room that I chose to work in was where they accumulated scrap aluminum and other trash, and they called it Kosovo. I never heard exactly why they gave it that name. Nevertheless, it was evocative, especially given the time that I have spent in the Balkans.

One side of the room was lined with windows that looked over railroad tracks, Trains passed regularly, shaking the room, day and night. From holes in the ceiling, strips of aluminum with cut outs dropped down, ladder-like. These came from machines in the room above, stamping out aluminum food trays. The piles built up until they were removed in hand-rolled wooden carts.

Having chosen that site for my performance, I returned a day later to discover that the beautiful piles of aluminum had been taken to the furnace. Arrangements were made with the factory to restore the piles. I was also able to go to the room above to place lights shining down the holes. And at the end of the day, they ran the machines once more in order to lower a full length of the laddered aluminum to the floor.

The action that I chose to do was simple, and durational. For the first hour I lay underneath one of the aluminum mounds. Gradually I emerged, my hands first. I slowly crawled out from under the aluminum, along the floor, and across the room. I was wearing a ragged wool overcoat and tattered boots with holes in the soles. My hands and feet, even my face, were covered for protection from the metal dust. Occasionally someone would stand close enough to me so that I could see a foot. I stopped crawling and reached out and held the foot until the person moved away, and then I would slowly continue on my journey. After an hour or so, I reached a dim section on the far side of the room, and slowly crawled out through a dark doorway. Every few minutes a low rumble would begin and the floor would begin to shake, until the sound of the train dominated the space, gradually subsiding.