Kebaya – South, South East
Installation Performance
2001
Koskikeskus Shopping Centre
"Tampere 18th Floral Festival”
Tampere, Finland

A one hour performance in the central atrium of Tampere’s largest shopping centre ‘Koskikeskus’.

An installation constructed from flower petals, rice and flour is created on the floor under the central atrium in a shopping centre over the duration of 1 day by the artist with other artists, friends and members of the public assisting.  The video ‘7 Women, 51 Kebayas’ sits in the middle of the mandala petal installation.

The performance begins with the artist kneeling and facing the video in kain-kebaya.1  There is a pile of kebayas in the same colours as the petals - pinks through to deep crimson - from which Cattoni repetitively removes one at a time and puts on, one over the other, seemingly in conversation with the women in the video who are also repetitively trying on kebayas.  Leaving the centre she moves on her knees counter-clockwise around the mandala removing one kebaya at a time, and sprinkling flour through the garment, leaving the imprint of the body of the kebaya on the ground.  This is repeated - returning to the video, dressing again, imprinting, circling, and gradually moving from kneeling to standing position - all the time adding to the installation with the imprint, but simultaneously walking through it and destroying it.

At the close of the performance, which continues for approximately an hour, Cattoni departs, the work remains, is dispersed and disintegrates as the public walk through and the space returns to its usual function as a main thoroughfare for shoppers.

Link: www.aiaa.org.au/news/news9/victoria.html


1 A pared-down version of traditional Balinese [and Javanese] costume for women.



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