MARINA COLLARD
Skirting around the Edges
Performed and documented in the streets of Rome
Festa della Liberazione 25.04.2023
Skirting around the Edges – revisited (2023) situates itself among people and moves through the streets of Rome for about 3 hours.
The performance is an offer, an invitation, an interruption, a gentle disturbance, without demanding anything. It makes a case for the uncertain. Often people’s responses are confused, dismissive, delighted or disinterested. I am aware of the role of the camera sitting on the tripod. It sets a context, a frame, a container. People understand it is a ‘thing’ and they too can choose skirt around the edges of the frame avoiding being caught on camera.
Skirting around the Edges – revisited (2023) has content and reason for the action of side stepping in a pair of flippers. As a way of highlighting the defiance of social expectations, the work was performed 25.4.2023, a public holiday of the Festa della Liberazione. Everything is considered. The idea of skirting, inhabiting the edges, points to questions of visibility, status and appropriateness, anxiety and exclusion, the work is both psychological and political. addresses readiness and reluctance. It holds a sense of wanting to enter in while holding an equally strong case for remaining on the edges observing and thinking. It is a resistance to consensus and resistance to collusion and agreement – holding some scepticism towards the prevailing culture and societal expectations.