Art in the city

A few days ago an artist in Portugual set up this art installation involving "performative helmets" (he doesn't say where, I'm assuming it's in Lisbon). A performer sits in the helmet and a spectator joins him/her and listens silently to whatever the performer says. It's "a private meeting with a stranger," says the artist.

Nearly a thousand people stopped to watch the performance as an installation and read the flyer we gave them (many more were watching from across the street). 90% of the "inside" spectators came out very impressed and enthusiastic about the project (needless to say some of them are theater-goers, but many others would never consider going to theater). Many people waited in all the lines to go through all of the performative helmets, since the story was different in each of them. There were a lot of smiling faces. There were tears. A young homeless punk who first wanted to ridicule the event, after hearing two stories asked one of the perfomers if they could change sides - which they did, and the punk told her life story. [Link]

Here's my thought. I spent nine months in KL from May 04-Feb 05 and the impression I got is that art in KL is something that you seek out rather than something that seeks you out. The closest thing I experienced to art seeking me out was when Hooman and I were staying at Darby Park and we went to KLCC to buy toothpaste or something equally mundane. We walked in and there was a performance of zikir barat in the central hall on the lower level. It "captured" us and we hung around for five minutes watching them.

That was not usual, though. The usual case was that I would wait weeks for a certain show to come to Actors Studio, or the National Gallery, or the Philharmonic. And then I had to reserve tickets, get dressed up, go there. The experience became something of a chore, rather than something that was naturally part of the city's rhythm that I happened to stumble upon. I hope things change so that more art sprouts up around the city.