When entering the Project Room space at Nosbaum Reding gallery, visitors first discover a cube with white gauze walls. Inside, one can make out the presence of a person. On the walls are works on paper, drawings and collages. Around the white cube, large heterogeneous boards are arranged on tables. The project “Gambling on Your Self” is a proposal by Flora Mar. She invites visitors to play with her.
The first step may be to get acquainted with the works presented in the space. Mar exhibits collages that express a questioning of identity, certainly about herself, but also with a universal scope, through cartographies, associations of ideas transposed into drawings, sometimes accompanied by a few words, through juxtapositions of images that create meaning... An invitation to discover the artist, but also to carry a reflection on one’s own relationship to the self.
To complement these works, Mar has devised a game and invites visitors to take part (by appointment). Visitors are free to choose a game board and enter the gauze cube where the artist awaits her guests. There, she explains the rules and gives the visitor two cards: a yellow one, to be shown if the person doesn’t feel comfortable with the question and wants to signal to the artist to continue more gently; and a red one that allows the guest not to answer, without any need to provide further explanation or justification.
Mar’s questions starts gently, with the aim to get to the visitors, and asks why the person has chosen this board. Then, the conversation flows. Open-ended questions--some more personal--allow the artist to discuss experiences of the self, intimate perceptions of the self, and of the self in relation to others. Through this game, she poses the fundamental question of “Who am I?” And since to be someone, you need to be at least two, Mar uses dialogue to explore the “self.”
In this game, there are no losers or winners, just as there are no right or wrong answers. The idea is rather to enter into a relationship, to interact and to “discover” yourself. We confide in the artist, and the artist confides in the visitor. She exchanges, gives, receives.
This work follows on from long-standing research, the first part of which was presented at the Nei Liicht gallery in Dudelange in 2014. For this new experiment, Mar has continued her research, scientific and psychoanalytical readings. She also worked extensively with a psychoanalyst (Alain Vanier) and developed this experiment in play with Nadina Faljic, who is involved here as curator, keeping the idea of dialogue in mind. Miriam Rosner accompanied her in the graphic design.
There are only a few days left to take part in this performance and experiment. Appointments at the gallery must be made by telephone (T: 28 11 25 1). The player and the artist meet face to face, and there are no spectators. A session lasts approximately 30 minutes.
Until 4 May, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, at 1pm, 2pm, 4pm, 5pm. Please arrive 15 minutes before the appointment time.
This article was originally published in .