EXCUSE ME, MY HEAD IS ELSEWHERE
Excuse me, my head is elsewhere, action, Oct. 2024, FNAF Festival of Naked Forms #10, Espace o25rjj Loupian, France.
I'm holding a spotlight lens between the flaps of my dress, which is open at chest level.
Through this lens, if you get close enough, you can watch a video looped on a small screen in my bra.
The sky and pigeons on a wire.
An alarm sounds constantly, more or less loudly.
A text appears and disappears: “Excuse me, my head is elsewhere”.
THE LONG SPEECH AND THE MISSING LEG
The long speech and the missing leg, action, July 2024, Festival NO W HERE, Goslar, Germany.
I spoke of two things...
The story of a pacifist father.
During my last stay in Ukraine, I was struck by the growing presence of people who are missing one or more limbs.
White fabric, green plant and tape.
Photo @Madeleine Franke
CLEANING THE GROUND
Cleaning the ground, action, May 2024, Pančevo Art Biennale, Serbia.
Some of the words I have said during the performance : “It happens very often that I remember my parents asking before dinner if I cleaned my hands”... They were asking me this question several times each day. Today it’s still stuck in my mind. “Are my hands clean?”... I think it was something like two years ago now, the train station in Kramatorsk was bombed. (...) One picture is still stuck in my mind. I think there were something like fifty people killed. A lot of children. When I was peacefully sitting in France. One of the pictures was a teddy bear, a unicorn... full of colors. This one was full of blood. I am pretty sure the kid who was holding this teddy bear is not alive anymore. And so, I hear my parents asking me if my hands are clean. Everyday. I think the blood is one of the most difficult things to clean. It’s what I think actually, it’s a fact. There are a lot of things we don’t know how to clean. I don’t even know if we can clean the wounds. Oh! And if someone wants to take part in this situation, there are other brooms inside, you can ask people who know where they are. Just in case. Because it’s going to be long to do that. And sometimes it’s better when you don’t do things alone. Two months ago I saw a video, still I was in France. It was a video of an orange cat. I really like that, I think everybody likes cat videos, sometimes it makes us smile. This cat was sitting on a man actually, he was cleaning himself, really peaceful. And orange cats are really strange, funny. But then, I realized that the man was dead. So it was a dead body. It was on the ground of Gaza. Palestine. (...) Still I hear my parents asking me if my hands are clean. I try to remember how to clean the ground. Also, a few days after seeing this orange cat, I saw a video of a little girl. Still in Gaza. She was holding her cat. She was maybe five or six years old. She was telling the cat... Or maybe more begging her cat. “Please, do not eat me when I will be dead from the bombs!” She was really insisting. I don’t know if she is still alive... There are a lot of chances that she is not. So... Do I have clean hands? How can we clean? I feel like it’s kind of impossible to clean... some grounds.” Words written on the paper are “діти”and “أطفال”) “children” in Ukranian and in Arabic languages).
OUR BODY MEMORY
Our Body Memory, action, 3rd of September 2023, FNAF Altenburg 1964, Prague, Czech Republic.
A table, a blue chair, a yellow chair, a mortar, a glass jar, a useless lipstick, ashes, a scarf, a long dress.
Words I had to say.
And my baby teeth.
Photo @Pascale Ciapp
THE LAUNDRY
The Laundry, action, 26th of August 2023, Sudeten FNAF performance art residency, PERLA, Kyjov, Krásná Lípa, Czech Republic.
A wheelbarrow, a bucket full of clear water, a bucket full of soapy water, six of my clothes and my dark blue dress.
Photo @Yaryna Shumska
Participation à SITE : FAULT LINES
Artistes participants :
Eduardo Cardoso Amato,
Barbara LeBéguec-Friedman,
Kane Stonestreet, Samm Shakleton,
Helen Davison, Selina Bonelli et Ash McNaughton.
Documentation par : Fenia Kotsopoulou et Daz Disley
Édition : Daz Disley et Ash McNaughton Daz Disley et Ash McNaughton
Performances à : Carrière de Dannes, France (12.09.2022) et Upper Culand Pit, Burham, UK (16.09.2022)
Commandée et présentée dans le cadre du festival SALT + EARTH du paysage, du paysage marin et de l'environnement (23 - 25/09/2022) au Block 67, Digital Glassworks, Folkestone, Royaume-Uni.
Soutenu par Kent AONB, Parc naturel régional des caps et marais d'Opale, Folkestone Fringe, et Creative Folkestone.
SITE est cofondé et coanimé par Selina Bonelli, Helen Davison et Ash McNaughton.
https://www.siteperformanceart.org/
Participating Artists :
Eduardo Cardoso Amato,
Barbara LeBéguec-Friedman,
Kane Stonestreet, Samm Shakleton,
Helen Davison, selina bonelli, and Ash McNaughton.
Documentation by: Fenia Kotsopoulou and Daz Disley
Edited by: Daz Disley and Ash McNaughton
Performances at: Carriére de Dannes, France (12.09.2022) and Upper Culand Pit, Burham, UK (16.09.2022)
Commissioned and presented as part of SALT + EARTH Festival of Landscape, Seascape and the Environment (23 - 25/09/2022) at Block 67, Digital Glassworks, Folkestone, UK.
Supported by Kent AONB, Parc naturel régional des caps et marais d'Opale, Folkestone Fringe, and Creative Folkestone.
SITE is co-founded and co-facilitated by selina bonelli, Helen Davison, and Ash McNaughton
https://www.siteperformanceart.org/
THE WAY WE WALKED
The Way We Walk, action, 5th of June 2021, X Performance Art Festival in Tychy, Poland.
Two chairs, a chess set, my father's shoes and a few litres of ashes.
PRÉSENTOIR À PANIER
Présentoir à Paniers, performance d'art action, 11 avril 2021, épicerie "Chez Camille, Ponteilla.
Sur l'initiative de l'artiste Pascale Ciapp, nous étions plusieurs artistes à intervenir ce jour, à proximité des lieux considérés "essentiels" dans nos communes respectives.
(Merci à Jackie et à l'épicerie "Chez Camille" pour leur accueil)
VERTICALE




Verticale, action, 15min, 21 février 2021.
Lors de la rencontre de fin de résidence Prendre le Temps à l'Espace O25rjj, Loupian, France.
Un fil, un clou, un sac de 14kg de sel.
Pour voir des extraits vidéos de l'action : cliquez ici
Participation à FEM_2020
Performance 'Duet 8' performed by Anet van de Elzen and Barbara Le Béguec Friedman dedicated to Lesley Yendell...
(Click on the image to access the video)
FEM_20 was held from the 28th & 29th December 2020, adapting to the current COVID19 situation by adopting an online format. We met virtually on Zoom, in order to make a series of Performance Duets. These duets form part of our ongoing group research into inter-connectedness and group experiments on synchronicity.
GROUND

Ground Performance, 10 min. 11th of Nov 2020, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman

Ground Performance, 10 min. 11th of Nov 2020, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman

Ground Performance, 10 min. 11th of Nov 2020, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman

Ground Performance, 10 min. 11th of Nov 2020, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman
Ground
Performance, 10 min.
11th of Nov 2020, Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian people's shoes...
Action proposed during the First International Triennial of Performance DEFORMES (Chile) in response to the given theme "The Virtuality of the Body: appear and disappear in times of War"
RIEN

Rien Performance 1h50min, 9 oct. 2020 Participation to the Laboratorium art project, Ivan Franko Museum, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman

Rien Performance 1h50min, 9 oct. 2020 Participation to the Laboratorium art project, Ivan Franko Museum, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman

Rien Performance 1h50min, 9 oct. 2020 Participation to the Laboratorium art project, Ivan Franko Museum, Lviv, Ukraine. ©Barbara Le Béguec Friedman
Rien
Performance 1h50min, 9 oct. 2020
Participation to the Laboratorium art project, Ivan Franko Museum, Lviv, Ukraine.
A few words borrowed from the poem "Опівніч. Глухо. Зимно. Вітер виє..." by Ivan Franko, water and a brush. On the paved ground surrounding the house, I write with water the sentence: '' Ні думка, ні чуття, ні біль - ніщо '' (No thought, no feeling, no pain - nothing). On my knees, I move with my water container.
BOITE




Boîte
Video-performance August 2020
Participation to the 6th edition of the International Performance Festival CORPOREA, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Experimenting with a restricted space and dialoguing with a certain form of absence. Living confined and feeling "cramped" is not new for many of us... through this action I wanted to experience the idea of the box in a different way...
TALKING-ABOUT-NOTHING




TALKING-ABOUT-NOTHING
Video-performance Jul. 2020
In the framework of the exhibition LA NOTHING A statement, at HOTEL DADA base de arte correo y poesia visual, Junín, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
HE CAN'T DANCE




He Can't Dance
Video-performance March 2020
Participation to the alternative open session Equinox to Equinox in confinement time...
CRASHED PARADAJZ

Crashed Paradajz Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad.

Crashed Paradajz Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad.

Crashed Paradajz Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad.

Crashed Paradajz Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad.
Crashed Paradajz
Performance Sept. 2019
IMAF 2019, Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad.
A tomato, a fishtail and chicken legs. The word for tomato in Serbian is "paradajz" which comes from the word paradise. The song of Juliette Greco "A small fish, a small bird" is played at the end of the action. This song is a song from my childhood, about a love story between a fish and a bird living in two differents worlds.
REFUGE

Refuge Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Former Youth CenterOdžaci (Serbia) 5 black and white photo printing of Refugees fleeing the war, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. 20 Anthem of Europe French lyrics (Georges Picard version) copies placed close to each person present in the room.

Refuge Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Former Youth CenterOdžaci (Serbia) 5 black and white photo printing of Refugees fleeing the war, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. 20 Anthem of Europe French lyrics (Georges Picard version) copies placed close to each person present in the room.

Refuge Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Former Youth CenterOdžaci (Serbia) 5 black and white photo printing of Refugees fleeing the war, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. 20 Anthem of Europe French lyrics (Georges Picard version) copies placed close to each person present in the room.

Refuge Performance Sept. 2019 IMAF 2019, Former Youth CenterOdžaci (Serbia) 5 black and white photo printing of Refugees fleeing the war, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. 20 Anthem of Europe French lyrics (Georges Picard version) copies placed close to each person present in the room.
Refuge
Performance Sept. 2019
IMAF 2019, Former Youth CenterOdžaci (Serbia)
5 black and white photo printing of Refugees fleeing the war, crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
20 Anthem of Europe French lyrics (Georges Picard version) copies placed close to each person present in the room.
LOOKING FOR YOU




Looking For You
Action Sept. 2019
Budapest (Hungary)
A stone.
WITH SYPORCA


Collaborations with Syporca Whandal
13th of Sept. 2019,
MERSZ KLUB,Budapest (Hungary).
BEAT




Beat
Action Jan. 2017
Ponteilla (France)
Beat : 'verb. strike (a person or an animal) repeatedly and violently so as to hurt or injure them, usually with an implement such as a club or whip. noun. a main accent or rhythmic unit in music or poetry. "the glissando begins on the second beat" adjective. completely exhausted. "I'm dead beat"
FACING WALLS




Facing Walls
Series of action started in 2016
from 10 min to hours.
WITHOUT WORDS




Without Words
Series of action
Started in 2010
Childhood, skin and trees...searching for peace.
Collaboration with Gilivanka Kedzior
From 2010 to 2017.
More informations here :




Collaborations with Gilivanka KEDZIOR, Tara & Razieh Goudarzi
Interaction
Dec. 2016, Khorramabad (Iran).