Eric Dean Scott: VISITING HOUR

Photo: Eric Dean Scott
The driving force of a performance normally consists of the spectator’s mute presence, his expectation, his gaze and his stillness. This could be considered a completely ordinary and selfevident relation between a performer and a spectator. However, the performance by Eric Dean Scott doesn’t take the presence of spectators as granted, but as a mix-up that catches Scott completely unprepared. He blames the phantom Sergej for everything, as he speaks to him over the phone: “Sergej, there’s a bunch of people here! What are they all doing here? No one was supposed to be here, but me. They’re just sitting and waiting. It’s like we’re in some sort of a waiting room. Who are they waiting for, what are they waiting for?” However, Scott doesn’t jeopardize spectator’s integrity in his performance, he doesn’t push the spectator to interact – the audience remains an untouchable, mute and still entity in this performance.

Concept, text, realisation: Eric Dean Scott
Artistic guidance: Bojan Jablanovec
The solo performance was created in the framework of VN LAB – Via Negativa’s lab for contemporary performing arts.