In Another Country
2013 – 2016
In Another Country is based on a speech I heard from a homeless businessman talking to himself on a bench at Frankfurt Station. Starting from my recollection of his discourse, I assembled the script for this performance. In the exhibition, a man confronts the unaware public with intimate details and questions about his life and identity. The man is dressed in business attire and holds a daily newspaper open on the economy page.
He reveals to have lost his job, his wife, and his house. Then he defines his identity as an immigrant striving to integrate into a new country while trying to make a living as a cleaning man. He recalls episodes of voyeurism and sexual addiction, questioning his sexual orientation. Finally, he reveals himself as a certified psychologist from California, now analyzing his psychosis in another country.
Elisa Caldana, In Another Country
2013 – 2016
Speech for an unannounced performance
1 hour
Untitled
2013
Untitled is a placeholder for the unannounced performance In Another Country, and the performer gravitates in its proximity. The sculpture is a copy of the original bench’s support structure, where the homeless businessman was sitting while talking to himself at the Frankfurt central station.
The original bench was comprised of eight individual seats that were fixed to the support structure with screws through sixteen enlarged screw holes.
I have made the sixteen holes through and along the support structure ready to receive the bench seats which are not available. In this work, I wanted to preserve the essential support structure, and to do both an act of construction and an act of subtraction.
Elisa Caldana, Untitled, 2013, painted iron, 41 x 24.5 x 391 cm
Documentation of the performance at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin 2016
Documentation of the show Jahresausstellung – Städelschule, Frankfurt a.M. 2013, with works by Clémentine Coupau & Rasmus S. Johannsen