“Every man is an artist” – Joseph Beuys
The performer uses his own body as the medium to materialize the artwork. But it only achieves full artistic significance when in relation to an audience. Everyday we perform – when we walk, drive, talk, sleep, eat. When living is performing, the house becomes a stage machine.
The House is elevated from the ground creating an empty space underneath it: a void anticipating new narratives.
A 9x17m rectangle is divided into five platforms. Each of the platforms corresponds to a domestic habit: shower, sleep, relax, eat, cook. These platforms are operable – they move up and down – through an electrical pulley system controlled by the inhabitant.
The inhabitant can choose to perform his own existence in front of an audience or seclude to his privacy.
The house is at the same time backstage and stage, preparation and performance. When all the platforms are up, the space underneath the house is public and permeable. When some, or all the platforms are down, domesticity invades the public realm – the inhabitant becomes a performer and everyone else, inescapably, the audience.
House for a Performer intends to question the boundaries between private and public, interior and exterior, everyday life and art, and ultimately, subject and object
program: house/installation architecture: João Fagulha, Raquel Oliveira area: 153m2 year: 2016 status: competition