Linda Franke

“For my performance as part of the MAHA Pavilion I would like to create an archive of objects that exist in the city of Bangkok. I hope to develop an abstract but also intimate idea about the routines of the city as well as information about economic situations despite my not being physically present there.

To create the archive I would like to ask a wide range of different people who live in Bangkok to take and send me photos of objects they frequently use and objects they did not use for a long time and maybe even plan to get rid of very soon.

In that process, I am looking for the experience of a collective authorship where I am the initiator of images that are being produced but the content that gets produced is out of my control.

Next, I would print T-shirts where the front side shows the image of the frequently used object and the back shows the object that is not useful anymore and give these T-shirts back to the contributors of the photos and ask them to wear it occasionally.

I imagine that one ever knows when this performance is happening. It will continue for an unknown time span in the future, basically until the T-shirts decay. These shirts will be objects of the future, talking about a specific moment in time and are only really alive when worn or chosen to be worn on a body.

​I am interested in the idea that the body displays an image in public space and in the tiny moments of irritation that appear when someone notices the image.
If possible I would like all people that have a T-Shirt to come together for one moment in a representative public space, maybe in front of the post office or a temple and walk together as a group slowly for 10 min.”

​- Linda Franke

Idea sketch for T-shirts and performance sketches in location for MAHA Pavilion,
2020, courtesy of the artist