collective painting with plants, 2021

painting-performance
Matthäikirchhof (Leipzig, Germany)

How can we find ways to protest in times of heavy censorship and violent suppression? How do we hack an unyielding system? How do you tear down a concrete wall?

There is resistance that can grow out of the cracks: resilience during moments of violence and restricted freedom. It comes from deep beneath the surface, determined, and able to grow in barren places. But are we aware of their existence? Can you see in between the cracks?

In the painting-performance A Collective Painting With Plants, I collaborate with the resilient plants that grow in the backyard and on the rooftop of the former Stasi building in Leipzig, the stage of the Peaceful Revolution, when people gradually united during the year of 1989 to protest and demand fundamental democratic rights in the repressive and inflexible GDR in Leipzig, Germany.

Together, we developed a painting-performance divided into two acts:

Act 1. Performativity of the action: One intimate, ritualistic moment between me and the plants. We are collaborators. I locate the plants, define their surroundings. We both bring the colours and textures. Together, we compose abstract coloured sand paintings in the concrete. Nature is highlighted.

Act 2. Performativity of the painting: The collective painting is constantly transformed by the environment: rain, wind, footsteps. Shape changes, colour fades. This means that in every moment, the painting will become a new one, with multiple authors. Ephemerality is highlighted.

This work is an invitation to perceive resilience. The moment the painting is spotted, the plant exists. Through the act of seeing, strength is acknowledged. Maybe a bond has been created. One spontaneous encounter with Solidarity.

Image Credits: Roman Häbler