Der Glückliche Tod im Leben und die Geburt ins Jetzt

During the month of June Bezzola visited Krinzinger Projekte as an artist in residence to create a continuation of her investigation on social mechanisms and psychological shields. Behavioral patterns, which influence our exchange as well as visual camouflage techniques, are attempts to control our environment, to achieve a sense of security, which however is often just illusionary. Her exhibition with performance in Vienna Der glückliche Tod im Leben und die Geburt ins Jetzt (Happy Death in Life and Birth into Now) is an attempt to diminish some of the most basic self defenses, the planning and the premeditation, to experience a little death through relinquishing the control of a situation and to be reborn in the now, the only immediate reality. In Vienna she is testing this free fall already, by arriving here without any artwork (or contacts) and then trying to convince the people she meets, to help and support her project.
Dressed in a uniform, a de-personalized attire to insinuate seriousness and security, she visited the people willing to help in their homes, to accept donations of clothes. By now the donations have been joined together with zippers into a big society web, an installation, which is on display in the exhibition. On the day of the opening, Bezzola stages a performance, during which she incorporates herself into the visual metaphor of society and the pressures associated with it. The viewers are confronted with a verbal explosion demonstrating her fears, that go a long with doubts, comparisons and categorizations-all aspects keeping us from experiencing an open and honest exchange with other people. Suddenly, upon the ringing of a bell, there is a break, an awakening, a realization of the wealth of the open and untainted moment - the enormous now. This liberating discovery inspires Bezzola to sing the Bach Cantata Ich habe genug ( I have enough) and commit herself to abandoning all the beliefs of separation and hierarchies and to open herself to possibilities of flow and merging with others - Happy Death and Birth into Now.
 

Catalogue on the occasion of the exhibition at Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (July 5 – September 29, 2007)