OSTERSPAZIERGANG VON JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

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performance

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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.

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The piece was performed at the 2018 "NSK Folk Art Biennale" on the legendary Mount Kum in Trbovlje, Slovenia.