PDA #1 : THE SAILOR
Nida Art Colony, Lithuania
PDA#1 : The Sailor was a performance that took place during a residency alongside the Large Glass Department in Nida Art Colony, Lithuania. It consisted in reciting a piece of poetry in Lithuanian recorded during a street poetry performance we stumbled upon when arriving in Klaipeda, as we were trying to adjust and figure out the language. Taking as a starting point a quotation from a student of Rebecca Solnit in her book “Field Guide on How to Get Lost” : “How will you go about finding the nature of that which is unknown to you ?” I decided to take the poem by the hand and let it guide me to the new place.
Without knowing what I am saying, I repeat the piece out loud while listening to the recording I made earlier, trying to emulate the sounds I am hearing, setting as the duration of the piece the time it takes for an insect repellent coil to burn. During the performance, I eat and share with the audience seashells made out of chocolate, copies of a seashell found at a local tourist stall at our arrival, similar to those in my hometown (both native to the Atlantic Ocean and unrelated to European seas), also adding pepper and rose petals collected in the forest. At the end of the performance, the audience is asked to write back words they recognized in their language.
The final texts resulted in : EVERY LAST SECOND / PANIC / PEACE / BRAINS / SEA SHORE / RELIGION / FOR LIFE / EARTH / SPRING / GOD and, "Brain / Every last second / A moment / Adrenalin is it possible / is it possible / Die / cooling in the shore / sea sings / no mother but rock / My life, barefoot on top of trees / almighty / Spring almighty"
During this act of translation, by carrying the words in my mouth, without being preoccupied with their content, I want to pay an homage to the street poet and transmit his words further through an / unknown to him / collaborative game of exchange. In this as a guest, I am turning my mouth into a host, submitting my tongue to an act of humility and humiliation, and through phonetic approximations and slips of tongue I am trying to figure out the space that a visitor occupies while trying to speak someone elses’ language, slowly making my way into a common space of speech.