"A glorious opening"

Duration: 1 hour, 2005

Performed: July 1^st, 2005
Exhibition: Inauguration of the Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern, Switzerland
Curator: Vanessa Achermann

I am standing at the opening door of the Paul Klee Museum in Bern. Behind me is a big video projection of myself. The video is a live signal transmission of the one hour performance. I am glamorously standing and keeping a chanel purse in my hand. The chanel purse is in the shape of a music cassette. I will be the "live recording" soundtrack, in flesh and bones, of the opening, on the imaginary magnetic band inside the purse.
I am opening the purse, showing the inside of it to the public and always repeating the sentence: "A glorious opening". I have a microphone attached to my mouth and the entire sentence is heard through loud speakers around me. The sentence will be repeated for one hour ininterruptedly. My image will be extremly curated. The clothes will be simple and casual. The face and hair perfectly made up for the occasion. I will be standing on a small step which will elevate me a bit from the public. A mini performance that lasted just five minutes. Only two people were present. It was an improvised event after the official opening of the exhibition the night before.

The idea is to blend glamour and simplicity. In my case, exclusive names/brands: Chanel and Piano and a simple idea: Inside the museum building, with the MC purse in my hands, opening it and repeating one gesture and sentence for an hour. Its as if the viewer would find him or her self inside a game of chinese boxes.

The emerging question in the performance is: "What is more important, the frame or the filling"? The purse, in the shape of the music tape, is empty inside... it is simple and black in the inner part... as a black hole... not showing anything concretely, but never the less, a clear space, totally free and open for imagination... As the museum opens, I am opening the purse as well... two containers made by big names: Piano (Museum) and Chanel (purse/Performance object), both empty spaces made to be filled up with other people's works/concepts. The container can be more or less beautiful or more or less practical, but the content remains it's very essence. The content is what will determine in the future the quality of the Paul Klee Museum.

What is more important... the frame or the filling? Do you prefer to unwrap a chocolate candy or do you prefer to just eat it? And if two identical chocolates would be wraped in two different packages, would your choice depend on which of the two is wrapped up better? I bet it would.

Further more, as a secondary information, Chanel is an important charactere because of her long exile in Switzerland, during and after the second world war. I am an immigrant in Germany, still fighting to find my position in it's culture and society.