Expressive Herd - Performance (2018)
Performance at Sommerøya, an electronic music festival in Ekebergparken in Oslo
Duration: 40 minutes on August 17 and 60 minutes on August 18.
Documentation filmed by visual artist Margarida Paiva
About the performance:
At music festivals people often act more freely – more relaxed than in other daily life situations. With the performance «Expressive Herd», performance artist Hans Christian van Nijkerk (NO / NL) mirrors this behavior with methods meant to make the audience more aware of their own way of behaving. The artist's absurd and persistent mirroring creates tableaus highlighting shorter or longer stretches of time, highlighting the wide range of activities the festivalgoers partake in. Selected festivalgoers get their behavior copied in the course of one hour, with reactions ranging from ignorance, annoyance and amusement to sheer joy. At its best, these actions form genuine human connection.
Performance at Sommerøya, an electronic music festival in Ekebergparken in Oslo
Duration: 40 minutes on August 17 and 60 minutes on August 18.
Documentation filmed by visual artist Margarida Paiva
About the performance:
At music festivals people often act more freely – more relaxed than in other daily life situations. With the performance «Expressive Herd», performance artist Hans Christian van Nijkerk (NO / NL) mirrors this behavior with methods meant to make the audience more aware of their own way of behaving. The artist's absurd and persistent mirroring creates tableaus highlighting shorter or longer stretches of time, highlighting the wide range of activities the festivalgoers partake in. Selected festivalgoers get their behavior copied in the course of one hour, with reactions ranging from ignorance, annoyance and amusement to sheer joy. At its best, these actions form genuine human connection.
All photos by Sommerøya festival photographer Morteza Masuleh.