26.05.2019 - 09.06.2019
Maria Barnas’ performative work, ‘The Poet’, is part of the wider exhibition on show at Looiersgracht 60, ‘State of Transparency’ (in collaboration with Gerrit Rietveld Academie), which investigates both the literal/conditional and the metaphorical qualities of the term whilst offering its viewers an alternative understanding of transparency in our era.
‘The Poet’ (2016) takes the form of a dry-ice, speech-bubble machine that reads the poem ‘The Planet O’, inspired by the essay ‘Captive Words, Preface to a Situationist Dictionary’. The essay, written by historian and self-proclaimed militant Mustapha Khayati in 1966, calls for the construction of a new language, moving forward from the critiques of the then current world that used the language of the very same world. Khayati talks of establishing new meanings through new terms, leaving behind dominant structures and these ideas permeate through Barnas’s poem. Barnas sees ‘The Poet’ as an autonomous performance; ongoing it will be on display for the duration of ‘State of Transparency’ but turned on to perform its own act at the following times: Saturday 25 May, 18:00 until 20:00; Saturday 1 June, 16:00 until 20:00 and Saturday 8 June, 16:00 until 20:00
May 23, 2019