Strangers & Intimacy

(Via Rob Hely.)

Strangers & Intimacy was an interactive performance work staged at West Space in Melbourne in early 2005.

The project began in September 2004 when eight artists were assigned a pen pal living in a city on the other side of the world. On the first day of September they all wrote a four line letter of introduction to their foreign pen friend. Over the four months, between September and December they continued writing letters to each other each week.

The development process was interesting enough all by itself..

Part One = Letters – The strangers meet via hand written letters, they reveal themselves, become intimate, share pasts, stories, memories and daily life.

Part Two = Melbourne – They establish a working relationship upon meeting at West Space in Melbourne, they stand face to face, sort through all the material, share ideas and create performances.

Part Three = Glasgow – The artists then travel together to Glasgow, the temperature drops, the poles shift and new intimacies form.

.. but what sounds really interesting (from the account related to me yesterday) is the actual performance, which – probably appropriately – isn’t described at all on the page linked above.