A pinch of salt

“The dance of the receptors #13”
Řehlovice, Czechia 2023
Kulturni Centrum, former hay storage
Duration: 28 minutes
Photographs by Monika Deimling

Context:

Initiated by Marie-Luise Lange and BBB Johannes Deimling in 2008, an annual performance art course for future art teachers takes place at the Kulturní Centrum in Řehlovice, Czechia. This collaboration between TU Dresden and PAS | Performance Art Studies focuses on performance art practice as a means to develop teaching methods for integrating performance art into school curricula.

As part of the programme, the course instructors present a performance each year, forming an essential part of the teaching process. In 2023, performances by Antje Dudek, Lisa Marie Porst, and BBB Johannes Deimling were presented.

The performance A Pinch of Salt was realised at sunset in the former hay storage, adding a temporal and spatial dimension to the work.

Description of actions:
A collage of performance images and sounds is created by executing the following actions with selected material.

– Sitting on a chair and constantly rattling a wooden rattle while painting the face white. [The chair is in front of a table attached to a large wooden beam with coiled ropes, causing it to rotate slightly above the floor. On the table are white feathers, some fall as the table spins. This is the situation as the audience enters the room.]
– Taking a doll’s dress from a porcelain soup bowl and presenting it to the audience. [While holding it, the dripping water can be heard.]
– Forcibly throwing the wet dress on the floor several times after removing it from the bowl. [The splashing of the wet dress pierces the silence, water prints become visible.]
– Painting a blue window-like shape on the shirt.
– Shaking out the white tablecloth on the table. [The white feathers fly high up and fall gently on the dark brown wooden floor.]
– Putting some soil in the shirt pocket; Planting a yellow flower in it; Taking a small glass of water, Raising the glass of water and gesturing a toast towards the audience; Pouring the water from the glass into the shirt pocket. [Inside the white shirt pocket is a red pigment that will turn parts of the shirt red once it mixes with the water.]
– Sitting at the table, lighting wood wool on a white plate.
– Moving two forks on the burning plates. [The forks make a loud squeaking sound.]
– Shaking of branches to which blue letters are attached. [The letters clatter and fall to the ground.]
– Lighting a red smoke torch in a blue metal pot. [Smoke rises and disperses throughout the storage building.]
– Dancing gently with a floor lamp.
– Putting the doll’s dress on two sticks. [The dress now has “legs”.]
– Leaving slowly the scene together with the doll’s dress.