PERFORMANCE: Peter Baren-Blind Dates With The History Of Mankind

Four days in a row a figure walked very slowly up and down Garibaldi Street. Dressed in a grey suit, censor bar painted across its face, holding a boomerang in one hand and a dirty, torn shirt in the other. While walking, he held one foot next to the other for just a second, and then continued. Every walk took about two hours. The first day TAI HE (Chinese for The harmonious operation of all things on earth) was written on both sides of the boomerang, the following days STRUGGLES, LOSS and ABSENCE respectively were written on the other side. The walk started at Garibaldi monument and continued in a straight line towards the bridge close to Giardini. Arriving on the bridge, the figure came to a standstill and held the boomerang above the other hand holding the shirt. The end of the daily performance was marked by having the boomerang tied to the fence surrounding the monument. Venice, Italy 2013.-Peter Baren

CV Peter Baren (1954) The Netherlands and lives in Amsterdam. He studied painting at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 1972 to 1977. Since his first public performance in 1980 his work has been shown frequently in the Netherlands  and towards an international level during the mid eighties. In 1989 he was one of the recipients of the PRIX DE ROME Art & Theatre. Baren’s work is often collaborative; other artists he has worked with in an early stage include a.o. dancer, choreographer Truus Bronkhorst, poet Koos Dalstar and artist Marion Gadiot. Baren’s multimedia practice includes site-specific public performances which he referred to as ‘temporary explorations’. He uses video both for documenting these performances and to create works which are more medium-specific examinations revolving around the history of mankind, cultural objects and space. Many of Baren’s pieces commemorate the notion of ritual and the way it functions in various socio-cultural contexts. This is conveyed in his art through the use of concepts of otherness and ancient cultures in works that also employ ‘body art’ techniques although in minimalist settings constructed with historical props. “PETER BAREN Blind Dates With The History Of Mankind Performances 1980-2013”, the monography, was presented during STAGE IT! Series of presentations and lectures on performance art. at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, May 2014. “Blind Dates With The History Of Mankind” (2013- ongoing) as a multi-sensory work, searches for a common ground between sensual bewilderment and operational suffering, challenging the constructed nature of our ideas on progress and memory, derived from our social and cultural circumstances. Recent invitations arrived from China, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Slovakia, Finland and Greece.