
Osterspaziergang von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, NSK Folk Art Biennale, Trbovlje, 2018
OSTERSPAZIERGANG VON JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
performance
Five performers stand in a circle – or pentagram – passing a bright green raw egg clockwise from person to person. Whenever an egg breaks, an AI-generated voice immediately recites the final line of Goethe’s Osterspaziergang from Faust I: “Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich’s sein!” (translation: “Here I am Man, here dare it to be!”). Following each break, a Faux Queen – positioned at the center of the circle/pentagram on a plinth, dressed in a traditional German Dirndl and holding a basket of green eggs – throws a new egg to the person who dropped the last one. The performance ends when all the eggs in the basket have been broken.
The piece was performed at the 2018 "NSK Folk Art Biennale" on the legendary Mount Kum in Trbovlje, Slovenia.