User:Pleun/project/dissectingbras

The 23rd of September was the opening of an in-house exhibition I was invited to be part of. There was an experience I had had a month or so before which stuck with me, which I wanted to turn into a repetitive scene.

Scene I've been thinking about existing structures in my life and to which extent I consciously made the decision to apply them. One of them was me wearing a bra every day. This simple action stems from a choice I had made in my early teens to conform to societies norms. Since then I had unconsciously repeated the action every day of my life while I personally practically do not need this piece of clothing. After the realization, I dissected my old bras on my bed in an afternoon where I decided I wanted to get rid of all the unnecessary painful, irritating or parts that are meant to shape or cover up. The action felt liberating as if I was shedding old versions of me who cared about "fitting in" and "conforming to" rather than to actually think about the "why". A small action, quite a big personal victory.

A few days later I felt the need to open up this conversation, but doing so by repeating the action and taking it further. I was thinking about doing it at the Performance Bar, but it didn't meet the first few criteria that I had set the moment I thought of it as a work instead of an activity alone.

Later when I was asked to join the expo the personal environment of the expo really fit the scene, which was one of the criteria. Additionally, the expo gave me the opportunity to try to accomplish a few personal goals I had set.

So very concrete I wanted to: - dissect bras - in a very repetitive, - durational performance where I would: - be myself, not in character (which means I can act, breath, talk, walk, sit = BE myself) - the version of myself i'm representing in that moment is myself as a worker: - I behave as if I'm doing my job, which is dissecting bras at that moment: - focused on the job, without breaks, in one spot.

- the audience can walk in and out of the room, as if I'm a work in the exhibition, - but I want to bridge the distance between work and visitor, with tools like communication and by creating the vibe of a safe space - engage with the audience while

Goals and criteria - Create an environment or "stage" yourself in a way you are in direct contact with your audience - Create a safe space where the audience feels compelled to speak to you about the work - Create a safe space where the audience feels compelled to touch the work - Repetition and durational performances are of interest to me and have been a part of every performance I did to this point (One great example of both I saw the 16th of September in de Schouwburg - where you give the audience the freedom to engage to whatever extent they feel they need.

Questions -

Method or structure: - I already mentioned repetition. Repetition of specific steps - Tools: I thought about the tools

The scene itself