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Tag: 2003

EVACUATION DRILL

The performance “Evacuation Drill” explores the bodily tension between crowd control, self-improvement and lifestyle. The gallery is between Islington and Hackney in London, which was a frontline of gentrification at the time.
During the performance, participants were split into two groups, training either in relaxation techniques or in crowd control. A DJ set tied the two sessions together with music. On the  sound of a siren, the crowd controllers started to evacuate the group that had just been practising yoga stretches. The music carries on in what’s become an atmosphere of chaos, until the evacuators and evacuees leave the building and the metal door slams shut.

THE REENACTMENT

“The Reenactment” is a video art piece by artist Caspar Below from 2002. It features four artists who were paid £5 to follow his verbal instructions for half an hour. 

The video starts with Caspar Below giving instructions to the four artists and then asking them to follow instructions, which turn out to be re-enactments of seminal video pieces.  

“The Reenactment” is an interesting take on how we view art, its creators, the means of production and pay.

NOW AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, 2003

Man gets filmed in shops and asks for copies. Shops panic.No”Now available to the public” is a video art piece created by artist Caspar Below in 2003. In this video, Caspar Below visits shops, museums and other public locations in Bristol. Below then submitted subject access requests for any CCTV footage that has been recorded of him in these locations.
The video contrasts the footage provided, his own recordings and letters sent to him by the locations explaining why they couldn’t provide him with footage or copies of their CCTV.
A moment in time at the beginning of the millennium, it shows the fragility of surveillance tech and raises questions about the impact on public life.one knows what’s going on.