Performative dining installation
Discarded and surplus materials
Collective workshop project
2022
Hier (Hin)? (Here?)
Walking is most enjoyable when it becomes a
shared experience, with conversations, shared
food and spontaneous encounters.
During a performative walk, 22 people carried
together an infrastructure normally associated
with settledness, order and fixed places: an
eight-metre-long table, four four-metre-long
benches, a four-metre-long basket full of food
and three two-metre-long loaves of bread.
These objects were not simple luggage, but
became a catalyst for a social choreography.
Their size and weight required close coordination
and collective responsibility. Walking was only
possible if everyone carried along.
The place to stop, the moment to rest, was not
determined in advance, but decided together.
At some point, the group decided to set up the
table and benches and eat together. This
improvised situation created a temporary social
space, a place that was created through joint
action and decisions and not through architecture
or planning. After the communal meal, everything
was dismantled and taken back to the starting point.
‘Hier(hin)’ poses fundamental questions about the
understanding of the public sphere and participation.
Those who carry, co-decide. Those who co-decide
design the space. The performative character of the
work makes processes visible that often go unnoticed
in everyday life, such as the extent to which collective
action is dependent on agreements, consideration
and timing. At the same time, the project refers to
topics such as care, common property and mobility.
What possibilities arise when places are not
predetermined but collectively negotiated?