Alexandra Pirici & Manuel Pelmus: Enactment of ‘Disappearing Music for Face’ by Mieko Shiomi
2015
Realized within the framework of OFF-Biennale Budapest
Curated by Gyula Muskovics
Venue: tranzit.hu, Budapest, Hungary
For the first OFF-Biennale Budapest, Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmus proposed a long duration enactment/quotation of Japanese artist Mieko Shiomi’s Fluxus action, “Disappearing Music for Face”. In the work of Shiomi a smile slowly fades into a neutral facial expression. In cooperation with performers, Pirici and Pelmus created a sculpture-like machine that reflected on the declared aims of the OFF-Biennale, too. At the same time, their on-going action was a comment not only on the current situation in Hungary—where nationalist isolationism increases and art initiatives are subsumed under ideological control—but also in a larger, global context. As the performers were struggling to keep finding a reason to smile, the very long “disappearing music for face” could enact, in a both sad and funny way, the effort we make in finding a reason to keep struggling.
