La obra es una zona construida, con el objectivo inverosímil de ser un espacio de interacción social, un campo festivo, compuesto de once mesas hechas de trozos de madera reciclados de obras pasadas, trapezoidales y yuxtapuestas en ángulos torpes, formando un gran polígono de geometria extraña con una superficie continua, desmadejada, cobierta de perforaciones triangulares para alojar cuerpos. Además, todo el contorno de la obra es cubierto por una red. Estás dentro o fuera. Los participantes gatean e emergen en el encaje rígido que rodea sus cuerpos blandos, apuntalados por la madera que los envuelve, y permanecen atrapados en sus agujeros, con las piernas submergidas, retorciendose de la cintura para arriba, los brazos extendidos, libres para levantar sus copas y saludar a los amigos, todos contentos anhelando cercanía y felizmente constreñidos, unidos rehénes de un solo objeto.
January 2016. Santiago, Chile.
We disassembled the La Ley tables so that the surfaces could be perforated. We cut several triangles out of each tabletop then reattached the legs. The tabletops already had oddly angled contours, so that placing them flush against each other already produced negative triangular spaces. By pushing all the tables together, with attention to optimum angle combination, we made a continuous mega-table pierced with triangular orifices big enough for a body to pass. We put up a net around the perimeter to delimit and isolate the table (composing with the jumbled elements of a table/net game). Our guests will arrive and the party will take place inside the table inside the net. There will be whisky and champagne, wine and kilos of red cherries and pistachio nuts by the handful, but only within the limits of the net. Nothing can be passed through, over it or under it. There are at least forty triangular holes, of different sizes and proportions, for the guests to fill. The guests will have to get on their hands and knees to crawl under the table between the wooden and human legs to find a hole through which to surface. Once they emerge into the party they will be surrounded; they will be welcomed, affectionately greeted, served wine, engaged in conversation by their close neighbors, but they will be wedged in place. They will see a friend in a triangle far across the table and they will wave; they may even gesture to move closer but the plywood edges of the triangle against their hips will remind them of the futility of the attempt. On occasion an empty triangle near a marooned friend will warrant the effort of relocating: slithering down and crawling across the floor and hunting for the correct spot beside familiar legs to avoid bobbing needlessly. There will be some who will not accept the conditions; they would prefer to go without company, food or drink than get on their hands and knees. But for most the reward will be worth the effort. As predicted, throughout the course of the evening the table filled with people, with joy; triangles were occupied and unoccupied and occupied again, holes double-stuffed, rumps lifted onto the surface with legs half-dangling; bottles were emptied, cherry pits scattered. The summer night fell slowly and at last the table was vacated.