Right and silences
[Unpretentious Ephemeral Act (UEA)] no. 4
Performance

Curated by Manuela Macco & Guido Salvini
TPA / torinoPERFORMANCEART 2014. Third edition
Torino (Italy)
Photographs: Guido Salvini
December 30, 2014

Throughout the entire performance, we could hear a background recording of the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Italian version. Similar to the Rights and Silences. [Unpretentious Ephemeral Act (UEA)] no. 1, the performance aims to alert to the recurrent non-compliance with this Universal Declaration. For this version, we completely modified the formal structure of the performance compared to the first time it was presented. The audience remained standing from the beginning to the end, with their backs against the wall, thus delineating the physical boundaries of the performance. Interaction with the audience took on special importance on this occasion. Among other things, we asked the audience to take off their shoes to create a central line with them and divide the space into two parts. In the last minutes of the performance, we introduced a crumpled paper into the shoes that, when unfolded, allowed reading an article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Upon putting their shoes back on before leaving the room, some spectators noticed that something was bothering them in one of their shoes…