Monument - Vertical vs. Horizontal
(excerpts from the performance text)
 

Headless

Your Honor, 

Thank you for this opportunity to explain my actions

I will try to be as brief and as precise as I can although, the matter is complicated.


To be honest, it was not that I objected to them as such. 

On the contrary - some of them were beautifully executed in terms of form and proportion, and I often truly admired their silhouettes against the light of the early morning sky

The problem was rather the space that they occupied, everywhere, blocking every other sight, obstructing every other view, cutting short my line of vision in every direction I turned my eye.


In hindsight I realize that my behavior can easily be mistaken for that of a violent –and possibly crazy– person, but I assure you that what I did was neither prompted by rage, nor by insanity.

My intention was simply to improve the visibility, just a little bit, in order to be able to see what was going on and to get a clear picture of the situation. 

Something –I am sure you would agree, Your Honor– that is a perfectly natural inclination in a responsible citizen and one that is to be commended rather than condemned.    

If I overreached my goal in my efforts to complete the task, it was –I would say– the result of a slight inclination towards claustrophobia in combination with simply having been brought up that way.


It is true, Your Honor, that my undertaking was carried out at the price of a certain disorder – quite possibly one that caused some people concern,  but I am sure that you, Your Honor, being an educated man, are familiar with the expression "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs".

There are risks and costs, of course, to this kind of actions, and I was aware of that from the start. In the light of the long term consequences of doing nothing, however, it still seemed that I had no choice. 


I will conclude my statement here, but would like to direct one last question to this court. While pleading guilty of what I stand accused of, Your Honor, allow me to ask you this; 

Is the punishment I am about to receive motivated by the actions in themselves, or by what they revealed as a consequence?

On monuments


A message is carved in stone 

A name, a period in time, a reference to an event or a heroic deed

The Stone is erected, defying gravity, to constitute a visual point of reference in the landscape 


The importance of it is decided here and now, and it is predestined to become a bearer of meaning, as far into the future as we can imagine

One that will last forever 

Or, pretty much 


Modernist sculptures, tomb-stones, memorials, statues of men on horseback 

Mutually confirming each other, promoting one occurrence at the cost of all others that are taking place simultaneously

Leaving us with the impression that we are faced with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth 


And now? 

Right now? 

As we speak?


Dowe know who the heroes are?  

How do we know that?  

And who are “we”, that claim to know it?