Page 10 - you dream come true

THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND by Claire Montduvin
Performance
This artwork re ects the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. It was a time when the human impact on the environment increased dramatically and a sudden acceleration in society deeply affected the human body.
The artefact is a machine that performs a useless action in an endless loop, during which it produces screams, laughing, and sighs. After six minutes the machine stops and only the museum guard can ac- tivate it again. Before each activation, the guard has to clean away the large puddles of oil that have leaked from the machine and onto the oor. The action of cleaning makes the oor slipperier and slip- perier, and the guard needs to work harder and harder to keep their balance as they operate the machine. The role of the guard is per- formed by a performance artist who, at the beginning of every loop, says: “This is not what I had in mind.”