Comfort Zone

Idea
The performance creates a surrounding for collective research, in which each participant, the artist as well as the viewer, is allowed to test the limits of habitual behaviorist models and assess their readiness to acquire new experience and assume a new role entailing unexpected reactions and consequences. The viewers can participate in the performance by taking a bunch of keys and finding the one that will undo the lock on the artist's neck.

Materials
• body
• dress
• transparent plastic collar fixing me to the wall
• metallic locker attached to the collar
• many keys in a single bunch, some of them can unlock the locker
• viewers / participants

Action
I sit on a chair in the artist's room in the Berlusconi Arc. Seen from a certain distance, it seems as if I were feeling comfortable. But at a closer look can be seen a transparent, almost invisible collar that fixes my posture. The audience understands that I cannot
get up or considerably alter my position. The collar is closed with a locker.

The next thing that is seen in the room is a bedside table with a bunch of two hundred keys on it, but only a few keys can unlock the locker. These keys become a sort of invitation to the viewers. It is up to them to decide whether to find the right key and set me free or leave me as I am. However, the performance does not end with releasing the locker. After I have been set free, I suggest that the participant should take my place. If he or she refuses, I ask them to lock me again. If they accept, I sit them on the chair and close the locker. What I do next depends on the situation: I witness what is happening and then either invite the viewers to take
a bunch of keys and release the participant or find the right key on my own and return to the "comfort zone".

Photography by Asya Freiya