SALOON: THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN OUR HEARTS GEORGIA SAGRI

at at Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (27/9 – 3/10/13)

As part of the exhibition "In the Heart of the Country", SALOON by Georgia Sagri presented "There is no country in our hearts". SALOON is an ongoing performance project initiated in 2007. SALOON worked on the collection and its reconfiguration through series of performances with works in the Museum collection and works of the invited artists: Roman Stańczak and Kostis Velonis, Zofia Kulik and Anna Molska, Geta Brătescu and Asli Çavuşoğlu, Jack Smith and Bill Kouligas. Through “hijacking” of a curatorial process this performance in duets reshapes the environment of dynamic exchanges between seen works. SALOON manifests Sagri's involvement in ideas of movement, flee, and deterritorialization. "It derives just out of need for enjoyment and constant change. Assuming there is no passive and active, inside and outside, representation and representatives what kind of social grounds can be created? SALOON is the moment of question not answer."

SALOON: I. September 27 (Friday) at 8pm Roman Stańczak and Kostis Velonis

II. September 28 (Saturday) at 8pm Zofia Kulik and Anna Molska

III. October 2 (Wednesday) at 8pm Geta Brătescu and Asli Çavuşoğlu

IV. October 3 (Thursday) at 8pm Jack Smith and Bill Kouligas

SALOON: There is no country in our hearts "There is no country in our hearts" I told her and she looked at me with surprise. I couldn't suggest a drink after that look of hers. With that gaze of hers, its discomfort that made me think of my knees and how I need to open my bag without reason, just checking things in my bag I walked and walked for hours. I started recording my voice saying how I hate being asked from which country I am, those shitty borders, nationalities, national expectations for what, for whom exactly are those expectations for, for which reason to talk my mother tongue like there is something that belongs to me when I speak it? I want my steps to be steps of pleasure for the things I do that I don't need to name, - I recorded that- the smells, sounds, textures, clothing and behaviors of a different world. G.S. 2013

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Georgia Sagri Antigone Model

at KW Berlin (Exhibition 3-5/7/13, Performance 4/7/13)

Georgia Sagri presents the third edition of the piece Antigone Model, conceived specifically for KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Six sculptures in an installation function as a chorus and as individual characters. These characters - the "dramatis personae" of Antigone - are animated through operating objects, building vocal and rhythmical soundscapes that are recorded and repeated. Each figure is thus characterized by its audible and visual presence. The installation and performance are conceived as a whole, and exist as equal parts of the work.

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Georgia Sagri – Owen

at Arnolfini Arts, Bristol (18/1 - 20/1/13)

Moved by Gertrude Stein’s idea that an acting subject is but one of many factors on the landscape of an event, Georgia Sagri’s ‘Owen’ perceives viewer and performer to be actor and spectacle at the same time. The title of the performance refers to a soldier (not their real name) who having fought in Iraq, wished to talk about their experience in the form of a public speech through a third party, Sagri. She invites the visitors to assist her in a durational learning by heart of the soldier’s speech and sit together on benches at Arnolfini. Nearby, a manual – made to look like a vinyl record – offers the elements on how anyone can activate the piece again on a different occasion.

Sagri’s performances question the presupposed antagonistic social interactions and the exchange of ideas, which they produce; demanding possible breaks beyond the presupposed in many ways and levels. In this piece, the stage is not an antagonistic space, as she believes that each and everyone including herself is a contributing author, elements of the landscape, a communal setting on the sorts of benches typically found in a town square.

‘Owen’- the soldier, the text, the action and as she describes it: the oral monument- is open for interpretation and activation at any time, albeit with some short of instruction. One short of requirement for example is that the ‘performer’s’ movements during the presentation of the piece follow the diagram from Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Footfalls’.

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