Kim Zumpfe

3D renderings of performance proposal for MAHA Pavilion,
​2020, courtesy of the artist

"Two non-compliant people have chosen to be subjected to decisions made by the other through a mutual decision making process that determines details of how tasks in a performance will be enacted. On highly visible streets in two financial centers, Sathorn in Bangkok and Downtown LA, these performers will respond to parallel infrastructures and architectures of the city. They walk, separated by distant geographies, yet still together in appearance and behavior. Their alliance is signaled by similar uniforms, actions, and the slowness of their pace, out of step with the rest of the crowd.

​Both performers have chosen to take on a role of non-compliance by engaging in behaviors that are outside of social standards. They will be watched, not only by people on the street, but also by people on a live-stream feed. In the watching, the audiences are placed in the position of bearing witness to the performers’ non-compliance. What responsibility does the audience have in watching? What response to the desire for recognition can be elicited from this non-spoken agreement? Can a different network of libinal relationships be formed beyond presence and perceptible distances?"

​- Kim Zumpfe

Images (left to right)

- Non-Compliant Bodies: Social Equity and Public Space - 05.23.2017 Speaker: Joel Sanders, Principal, JSA; Professor of Architecture, Yale University on the Center for Architecture, Vimeo

- "The Position of the Unthought”, Saidiya V. Hartman and Frank B. Wilderson, Qui Parle, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp. 183-20, University of Nebraska Press