description of action

A blackly dressed woman (long dress, raincoat, sunglasses and flipflops) stands in the foot of a small hill leading up to a rather massive gothic church. It seems a little as if she desires to void. In front of her lay 46 filled water bottles next to each other in a straight line. Their necks are twined around with a sisal lace. The laces differ in length which is obvious because they are elongated laying on the black cobble- stone floor in direction to the house of god. As the audience arrives, the bold shaved woman, takes off her sunglass- es, flips her shoes off, strips off her rain coat. A backless robe dress uncovers, her arms are painted black. She enters into the bottle field on barefoot. She puts her feet one after the other on two bricks prepared on some of the laces. That makes her go to squat position. In her hand she had a little water bottle of the same type as the other 46, only the smaller version, which she now emp- ties between her legs, the water pours down the hill. The woman ties anoth- er lace around the neck of the empty bottle and throws it downward the hill among the other bigger bottles. The end of the lace is prepared with a little eyelet, through which she leads her pinky finger, so that she holds the bottle on a leash. The woman now tries to gaffertape the bricks, which are prepared to do so, on her feet but she fails to do so. The woman stands up, turns around for the first time watching around and asks the public “is it ok if I do it with- out the stones?” The audience replies: “yes” or “ of course...”

“Thank you”, she says. She steps down the bricks, entering the laces. Her feed touching them, she slowly walks into the left corner of the prepared bottles. The other bottle’s laces are also having this eyelet each. The woman now slips all her all fingers of the left hand into them, one after the other, afterwards she equips the right hand, until she has the lace-leashes all around her 10 fin- gers. Her body is now in the center of the bottle line. She begins to take some first steps in the direction up the hill. The straight bottle line begins moving and is becoming a weight she is carrying up. The woman walks slowly and held back by the bottles weight up the hill. She opens her arms heavily because of the water’s weight. But she manages to take one slow step after the other, after the other. It is raining.

1st Genuflection: The woman falls down next to a plastic bag held by a cobble. She drags out a cigarette from in there and lights it with the black lighter gaffer- taped between her breasts. She takes a few whiffs. With the cigarette in her mouth she continues the way up. She is smoking handsfree for her hands hold the 41 bottle laces. Five big bottles hap- pened to be left behind...

2nd Genuflection: The woman falls down next to a tiny case and stubs out the cigarette. She opens the case and takes out an electronic drill. She watch- es the audience, holds the drill in her left hand, activates it. She swaps the drill to the right hand and leans/squats down next to the bottles. She begins to drill holes in one bottle after the other. The bottles partly give little water ex- plosions.

By her drilling the one and pressing an- other a fountain is played. Water spills in her walking up, logically the bottle’s weight got lighter. Her arms reach the opening

position easier. Her black arms and the black dress draw a “backless Cross” image. She carries the drill with her, holding it in her right hand.

3rd Genuflection: Another plastic bag lays prepared with a cobble. She takes out another cigarette, puts it into her mouth, lits it, fails, asks the audience: “Someone got fire?”. A young woman goes to her, lighting her ciga- rette. “Thank you”, the wet woman says smilingly. She stays almost on top of the hill now, turned to the bottles, fac- ing the audience from front, looking into the spectators eyes. She activates the drill, the drill’s sound accompanies the silence and rain sounds. She holds the drill in front of her, long arms. The drill’s position so is in front of her lower belly. She is still smoking, while press- ing the ON button of the drill with the other hand. Her hands are still laced to the bottles. The drill faces the audience from her womb area. As if she was relieving herself her face expresses laughter, alleviation, lightness and a lit- tle blame, accusation. A passerby calls “That looks hard to do” She replies “It is, but I manage”.

She stubs out the second cigarette and walks up the rest of the hill. Her gaze is now up to the church tower. She shows her open back to the audience again. The audience follows her surroundingly. Almost at the top of the hill, the woman lays down on her belly, gazing upwards, open arms, one hand is holding the drill and half of the laces, the other hand is tied to the rest of the bottles. She puts her feet onto each other and releases her body onto the cobble stone floor. Her head is releasing to one side, her eyes are closed.

Within the pouring rain the black shoe paste is transformed. It seems like the water from above is painting the last im- age. Is it Peter himself?

description of site

The site I chose for “You know, I miss the Father when it comes to carrying the bottles upstairs” is the hill to a house of God. Could be any kind actually: church, cathedral, chapel...

The way up to the Peterskirche in Görlitz is by cobblestone, which turns very black when wet. The way is riddled by two red-white-striped site fences, implying that there is some construction going on. The performance starts near the river next to some private houses in “old-town-style” and leads to the church’s back. The audience is not guided to the main door by the performer.

I chose not to take any research on the cathedral/church’s history because it felt dishonest to do so. I wanted to let the site directly speak to me without gaining knowledge about it from other resources. The house of God as a concept only reveals strongly into the necessity of that performance. I also was never inside the church by choice, because I wanted to be treated from the building’s massive outside appearance.