BURKAKTTWIST
first performed on
September 10, 2011
Kunstnershus, Oslo, Norway
performed twice in 2011
AGNES BTFFN
Stavanger, Norway
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abtffn.com
BURKAKTTWIST
AGNES BTFFN
“BurkAktTwist” is a performance-stunt. The action is a walk in the exhibition space during the opening. I am nude only covered by a burka-like garment made of chocolate papers (from the well-known chocolate brand Twist). The small papers are glued and sewn together making a fragile collage. Their colorful sides make up the inside of the burka and their other sides give it a silvery look. “BurkAktTwist” is the second performance activating the aesthetics of the burka-paper-collage-covered nude walking in the art museum space among artworks and vernissage visitors. The first performance “BurkAktKrise” first took place march at the opening of Brigitte Waldach og Christian Lemmerz at the Stavanger Artmuseum. The burka-like collage/garment which covered my nudity then was made of small paper receipts. Both performances took place without me having in advance asked for permission, since I thought that the act of walking among artworks during a vernissage is normal in an art museum. The differences here are the way that I am dressed and the way that I move. I move slowly from artwork to artwork and do not talk. I occupy only the space I need to walk just like every other visitor. The other difference is that a photographer/filmmaker follows me to document the action. I don’t advertise the performance in advance. I want it to find a place in the space between public and private. Both performances quietly seek to become part of the chosen artworks in the museum simply by existing. When the photo- and video-documentations are edited, they will become a legitimate artwork involving the museum without having been chosen or refused by the museum’s authorities. My attitude places the performance among other artworks by touching many themes: artists’ use of nudity throughout history, implications of the anonymous, the burka’s forcbile/abusive nature, a foreign identity within a western world, the burka’s disposable material that evokes modern consumption, and muteness.