Christian Falsnaes: Feast

About

FEAST is not only a performance and an exhibition. FEAST is also the celebration of ten years of collaboration between Christian Falsnaes and PSM. During this period, we have been on a journey together with Christian, and with our audience and the art professionals who follow and support us. As members of the art world, exhibition visitors, organizers of shows, and creators of performances, events, and adventures, we have been part of the process together, trying to understand what active participation in art did to us in the past, might do to us now, and how it will affect us in the future.

FEAST is an occasion to celebrate the moment, but also to look back at the beginning of Falsnaes’ practice, from first attempts, through critical moments, and to the development of a work that questions the structures of the art world itself. In the early performances Falsnaes took his own body, identity, and cultural heritage as the starting point and above all examined his own role as an artist. Today, Falsnaes’ work has developed into an ongoing examination of social experience, the power of group dynamics, and individual choice.

At the center of FEAST is the video work of the same name, which is based on the performance Falsnaes presented during a festive dinner in the gallery on the anniversary of his cooperation with PSM. The dinner guests initially received white unisex outfits and therefore merged with the gallery and banquet furnishings, which were also completely white. During FEAST, Falsnaes intervenes in the get-together and picks up elements from earlier performances interweaving new approaches that celebrate the ritual union of artist, gallery owner, and audience. Through the participation of the dinner guests, FEAST becomes a collective experience and transformation of the dinner as a social situation. Codes of behavior are violated and the festive banquet turns into an outbreak of excessive revelry—a bacchanal FEAST.