This work tackles the issue of confinement as a form of personal, political, economic, and religious conflict, and as a state of social exclusion and exploitation. The title is a homophone of the Greek word written “ekí” and meaning “there.” It encapsulates both a fixation on making an escape, and an act of coercion into a state of subjugation, centered on self-imposed states of bodily art.

During the performance I enter a confined space for eight hours each day. I make my way through a sequence of “cells” using my only tool, a key, which I use to break through the walls. A lack of imagination—that is, a spiritual limitation—is offset by repetitious action and an insistence on escape. The final confinement cell opens only when a visitor takes the key from my hands and slips it into the lock.

The four-day interventional performance “A Key” was selected by Marina Abramović and the MAI team for the opening of the exhibition AS ONE at Benaki Museum in Athens, produced by NEON + MAI, March 10 through April 24 2016.