Mirror Banner
Public performance, June 2015, Tel Aviv, Israel. Metallized polyester. Camera: Dima Nof
The mirror does not reflect, it shows the reality that we cast into it. The result can bring a smile, and we will call it “a poetic action” if the intention is to flatter, or “a spectacle” if the intention is to denigrate. It can also hurt, then we will not know how to call it. Yesterday it hurt.
The world of festivals and exhibitions, where metaphors are subjects for mingling chats, provocations are not intended to provoke anyone to anything, and political declarations are mere signs of affiliation, is the safe world where the chance of unexpected consequences is close to zero. Outside, in the open, where content and meaning are created in real time, metaphors have tangible consequences that are not controlled by the “rules of the discourse”, and the unexpected is unavoidable. Yesterday the metaphor of the mirror worked, and the unavoidable realized.
In 1965 two paintings by Robert Irwin were vandalized by the public of the São Paulo biennale. These were the “dot paintings”: large white canvases covered with millions of tiny red and green dots. The paintings were cut with knives, stoned, dumped with coke. Abstract paintings were filled with content by the reality of the resistance to the military coup.
The content of an abstract work is naturally cast into it by the environment. Placing a mirror in front of Neve Sheahan neighborhood was a metaphoric, poetic action that turned political within a moment. The mirror turned black when the environment – and not the artist – demanded it.
Written on the day after the performance. Edited in September, 2019.
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The Black Mirror Dialogue (transcribed from video)
black is good
black is good
don’t touch it
don’t touch it
black is good
black is good
what color
make it white color
don’t touch it
enough
don’t touch it
what is it
black is good
make it other color
don’t make it black color
don’t make it black color
why black
i’m black
so what
i’m black
but i don’t want black
this is not black
but what is this color
don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t touch me
this is black color
i don’t want black
make it white, that’s fine
but this is not black
that’s ok, that’s ok
black is not allowed
but this is not black
black is not allowed man
this is not black, man, look at it
man
is
black
this is black color
sir, go away, just go away
do you want to get arrested
no
so go away
there is a problem, problem
good evening sir, good evening
make him go away
guys, don’t address him
come aside with me
moment guys
stop provoking
step back
you too with the camera
what is the problem
not black color
ok what disturbs you
don’t want black
ok what disturbs you now
disturbs me
because
because i’m black
come aside with me
don’t make troubles
no hands
no
hands
with
the
police