News to the Walls of History Germany 2023

10 Jun 2023 : Kaiserpfalz, Goslar, Lower Saxony, Germany

Full title: Bringing the news update to the walls of history. This work was first performed in Melaka, Malaysia in 2018. The historic walls of the old Kaiserpfalz Goslar provide the ideal platform for this work as I perform before the ancient stones. In the performance I speak and read to the walls from both German and English newspapers, bring the news of the day to ancient walls which, although a constant witness, may not comprehend the rapid changes in society over the centuries. In the Goslar performance I have added the black crepe paper streamers I’ve previously used in my performances of DELTA, however whilst still 25 metres in length I’ve cut them down to a width of 125mm. My site, the Kaiserpfalz, was the royal palace, constructed in the 11th Century by Heinrich III. German Emperors held court there for several centuries during the middle ages. I performed in front of stone walls and two separate gateways along the length of the building and climbed two separate staircases to thrown down the crepe streamers. Reading to walls I at first sprayed the paper with water from my mouth and inserted them into cracks in the wall (recalling the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem where visitors put secret notes between the stones). Along the next wall sections, after reading from them, I crumpled the papers into balls and threw them towards the walls and gates. Due to the strong winds that afternoon the watching artists below became happily entangled in the streamers.

The festival comprised 8 artists coming from Thailand, Germany, Hungary and myself from Australia. The program included a photo exhibition of 3 images of each artist plus videos at the MachMit! Haus Goslar as well as artists’ talks on Friday 9th June. The 8 performances on Saturday 10th June took place sequentially between 1pm and 5pm across 7 sites in the old town. The audience walked between each site and many were the general public and tourists on the day.

Materials: costume, wooden chair, shoulder bags, German and English language local, National and International newspapers, plastic water bottle, water sprayed from the mouth, 300 metres black crepe paper streamers.