experience_as

In The Netherlands, there is a period of few weeks after the New Year for disposal of used Christmas trees. The idea is that everyone leaves their Christmas tree in front of their house and on a certain date, depending on the neighbourhood, the municipality takes them away. During that period hundreds of Christmas trees are laying around the city like abandoned corpses, which they are. Corpses who's life was created with one purpose - to be killed for entertainment and decoration. Triggered by that scene and common practice, I had to react on in, and channel growing anger into a performance.
During those two weeks I was riding bike around the city and taking photos of every tree I would stumbled upon and mark the name of the street tree was placed in. there was in total 73 pictures I took and more trees I encountered but sometimes I just didn't have time to stop. In few locations I did street intervention and marked trees with white spray as 'Crimr sceene'. Spray was temporary and it stayed about a month on the ground, just enough to stay as a reminder and an evidence after the tree was removed.

As an answer to the crime scene, I performed a work called 'Chrismas piñata'. It is as it sounds, a Christmas tree hanged from the ceiling upside down beaten by a baseball bat. The work was performed on the 7th of January; Jesuses birthday by orthodox Christmas as I come from an orthodox family. Blindfolded, in the office clothes, it was a direct fight between nature and human ideologies. Somehow, by accident nature won, by kicking a baseball bat out of my hand in one of the attacks on the tree.

Besides the topic I was dealing with, the important part of this work was the experience of the artwork which, ironically, wasn't possible to be experienced.
Pine trees have a very specific, intense smell which could have been felt all over the room. For many people that smell brings back the memories, mostly connected with Christmas time which would bring them to a different place while being at the performance. From the feedback of a person who filmed the video the experience of the performance was something that would bring out of this performance more than just visual representation.
While I was battling the tree pieces or even whole branches would fly away. Sometimes, as I had no feeling of orientation, I would come closer to the cameraman which brought a slight feeling of fear of being hit. And after all, just the act of violence brings certain tension and atmosphere in the room, which, unfortunately, wasn't possible to be an experience by the viewers.

Crime scene street intervention on a dead Christmas tree

* It is hard for me to place the project on one specific page because this project covers all the topics and pages of my thesis. Although the project itself is the 'Life of the artwork' and it should be on that page I've decided to dedicate it to page 'Experience as art' because of the great examples of performances and experiences as an artwork.

After some period of working on the 'Afterlife of Christmas trees' project, I had left around 15 Christmas trees separated on logs, branches and needles.
Thinking of that material and focus points in my work, made me think of fire as an element that could fit perfectly in my concept of experience as art.

The idea I got is to make an event in which I would burn my Christmas trees.

I thought of fire not just as a tool to finish the cycle and get done with the trees but as an important sensorial and social factor. An event guided merely by subconscious sensorial experiences, which would lead to decisions of movement or reaction. The artwork would be there but it would be invisible, hidden inside of the event, experienced and shared only by a group of people participating in that event particularly. The artwork is there at that very moment, for anyone who would watch the video of the event, it would be nothing else but another event, a party. The only way to experience the artwork is just by being there at that very moment. When the night is over so is the artwork, it exists only in memories, and as empty documentation which is nothing more but documentation.

When I imagine the work it would be done at night, warm but chilli night, maybe in fall or late spring as it is important to have the smell of fallen leaves or warm forest breeze. The event would be placed outside, in nature, in a park or next to the water. Each of these components is crucial as it gives different experiences and therefore different outcomes.
Because the work is physically invisible controlling setup and ambience is the key factor for the experience. I have to be very careful with controlling though. It is very easy to slip between thorough preparation and over-controlling in which we lose the magic factor of uncertainty.

In the centre of the event would be an open fire pit, like a bonfire, a minimum of one meter in diameter. It is very important for fire to be open as it is a centre of social gathering. Fire has always been an important part of human history, a symbol of death and rebirth, it has been part of ceremonies, burials, celebrations, source of light. We are unwillingly attracted to it, to its warmth and light. These are the aspects I want to use in my work as well, fire would mark the beginning and the end of the event, its glow would decide the borders of the event and with its heat, it would keep people gathered and slowly form social groups.

At the beginning, and during the event food and drinks will be cooked on charcoal from the firepit, and shared with the people. Ideally, the food that will be served would be homegrown. The importance of homegrown food is in care and flavour. Flavour and food are world on their own and can change the whole experience just by the way food is prepared and how much attention is given to it. Cooking food talks by itself, smell to be more precise. Food's smell opens the stomach and our brain automatically goes towards the source of it the smell of food. Because of that, the invitation is not considered necessary, food would invite by itself. The other possibility is that there are guests invited but they would have to find the location by following the smell.

There is a reason why I want to burn these trees specifically. One reason is the smell of pine trees, yes pine trees do burn fast but they also leave their distinctive smell compared to some other longer-lasting woods. The other maybe even more important reason is that those trees are the artwork. By burning trees which are the main focus of the project, the 'Afterlife of Christmas trees' work continues its life towards disappearing.