MEETING RING > Marco Dalbosco

Wednesday afternoon, 13 October.
A hint of sun tries to come through the clouds, ponying up.

In front of London Metropolitan University and, contemporaneusly, the Whitechapel Gallery, a small group of people gather at the corner of the pavement. One of them is mounting an imposing tripod, whereas another looks around nervously, maybe hoping that no officer will come over asking questions about it. It's fifteen minutes past one.

The performance is due to start soon, but the imagination of the artist and curator, who devised all this together, saw many more people participating and there are just around 10. It has been very difficult trying to convince people to join in: despite the interest - or simulated interest - in a mock confrontation among artists and curators, it's hard for people to expose themselves not only under the gaze of a video camera, but under that of the casual public. Thanks to the efforts of a few, more bystanders join in.

No rehearsals were done, and there actually is some discussion about who wants to "be" the artist or the curator; artists are supposed to run around the curators, and not everyone wants to: hangovers, just eaten, can't be bothered.

At half past one, the whistle blows.

The running path is longer than anticipated and the group in the middle, the "curators", are struggling to turn into a compact mob as instructed and can't really keep up: it looks like they want to chase the runners, follow them, without getting any attention. Their movements are clumsy and they seem to be in conflict in the same group. Move right...no, left! No, back!
The runners, the "artists", seem more free, but they keep on going on their path without looking back.

Suddenly, two members of the different groups switch positions and this changes dynamics: the group in the middle starts to walk at a leisurely pace and the other one breaks the line, running in different directions. Some instructions are shouted discretely and, after a couple of minutes, everyone freezes.

The whistle blows again. The match is over.

With Many Thanks To:

Spike

Caterina

Maddalena

Chiara

Aniela

Becky and friends

Francesco

Nick

Alex

Alessandra 

Joe

and

Fabio for documenting


Please visit www.marcodalbosco.com