“Ain­si, ume par­tie de l’humanité, rel­a­tive­ment riche, tra­vailleuse, créac­trice de sur­plus impor­tant a su et sait échang­er des choses con­sid­érables, sous d’autres formes et pour d’autres raisons que celles que nous con­nais­sons.”
Mar­cel Mauss, L’Essai sur le Don 

Through these par­tic­i­pa­to­ry, per­formed sculp­tur­al works we hope to chal­lenge the tra­di­tion­al pur­pose of object-based art by propos­ing a con­sum­ma­tion of the objects with­in the work that excludes com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion, employ­ing the sculp­tur­al work sole­ly as a vehi­cle for the col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence it pre­scribes. In this sense, as well as in the prompt­ed and coor­di­nat­ed col­lab­o­ra­tion of strangers per­form­ing abstract rit­u­als of de-hier­ar­chiza­tion, the works are intend­ed as unspo­ken man­i­fes­ta­tions of resis­tance to neo-lib­er­al val­ues of indi­vid­u­al­ism and gain. The works pro­vide a mate­r­i­al frame­work for impro­vised social exchange, defend­ing a space for human sol­i­dar­i­ty and communion.

The are­na is a square-shaped, wood­en enclo­sure, with 4 swing­ing gates, 1 on each length of the square. The inte­ri­or is divid­ed into a series of indi­vid­ual com­part­ments, with inner gate­ways that lead to a com­mon, cen­tral table. 

The work is divid­ed into 3 8‑minute rounds sep­a­rat­ed by 2‑minute inter­vals.
The ini­tial posi­tion assign­ment for the con­firmed par­tic­i­pants is by lot­tery. Par­tic­i­pants select a card that sit­u­ates them by chance in one of 3 equal groups of 8, called the red group, the black group and the white group. Fol­low­ing the cues of a con­duc­tor, the 3 groups rotate posi­tions in the 3 dif­fer­ent sta­tions, called the inner ring, the mid­dle ring and the out­er ring. The inner ring is the receiv­ing group; it social­izes freely as a group while being served and enter­tained by the oth­er two groups. The mid­dle ring is the giv­ing group; it tends exclu­sive­ly to the group occu­py­ing the inner ring and remains pas­sive when not serv­ing or assist­ing them. The out­er ring is the sup­port­ing group; sit­u­at­ed on the periph­ery, it pro­vides music and enter­tain­ment, ener­giz­ing the action tak­ing place with­in the arena. 

To begin the work, the red group is assigned to the inner ring, the black group to the mid­dle ring and the white group to the out­er ring. At the out­set, those who drew a black card are also hand­ed a ring, not to wear but to bestow. Those hold­ing a white card are hand­ed bells, while those hold­ing a red card are hand­ed noth­ing. A whis­tle marks the begin­ning of round one, and imme­di­ate­ly the black group mem­bers present the red group mem­bers with the rings. Then, for a peri­od of exact­ly 8 min­utes, the red group in the inner cir­cle will frat­er­nize around the cen­tral table, enjoy­ing food and drink served to them by the black group. The black group mem­bers wait exclu­sive­ly on their respec­tive-adja­cent red group mem­ber. The white group makes music in ener­getic impro­vi­sa­tion, mov­ing and danc­ing along the out­er ring, until a whis­tle marks the end of the round 1. A brief inter­val allows the par­tic­i­pants to tran­si­tion to their new posi­tions for round 2. The work pro­gress­es in an out­ward­ly radi­at­ing pat­tern; at each new round, the inner and mid­dle groups move back a slot while the out­er group moves for­ward to the cen­ter, hand­ing off their bells to their replace­ments. For round 2, the white group comes for­ward to the inner ring while the red group moves back to the mid­dle ring and the black group to the out­er. For round 3, the black group moves for­ward to the inner ring, while the white group moves back to the mid­dle ring and the red group moves back to the out­er ring (see dia­gram). When the 8 min­utes of the third and final ses­sion are up, the whis­tle marks the end of the work. Each group has expe­ri­enced each sta­tion. All groups are released from their posi­tions and are free to leave the are­na or to linger unre­strict­ed­ly.
When the work ends, the black group is once again in pos­ses­sion of the rings that they were giv­en at the begin­ning, and it is intend­ed that those par­tic­i­pants keep their ring, as a gift.
 
WHISTLE!!!!

‑Bells!
-Rings!
-Wine!
-Table!
-Gates!

DIRECTIONS