Slow Races
(2014) Durational Performances
De La Warr Pavilion
5 July 2014, 12 - 6pm
Slow Races was conceived for the Dear Serge programme of the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and plays on the local history of motor racing and on the modern obsession with speed, mobility and utility. Traditionally ‘A Day at the Races’ showcases the fastest horses or the speediest cars. Slow Races inverts these values and offers games in which participants engage with slowness and stillness while performers excel in uselessness.
In Slow Races familiar garden ornaments come to life and slowly drift around the Pavilion, celebrating their ornamental selves; in All Human Beings are Born Useless and equal in Uselessness a gnome addresses audiences from the bandstand of architect Niall McLaughlin with a provocative speech which challenges the ubiquitous utilitarianism of Modernity; in Slow Races #2 (Scooter Murmuration) mobility scooters roam around the grounds of the Pavilion like flocks of starlings, and visitors can take part in the Slow Races #3, balancing beakers filled to the brim with water.
Slow Racing performed by Andrew Barker, Andrew James, Andrew Downs, Andre Verissimo, Nic Sandiland, Kate Brown, Katy Pendlebury
Photos: Emma Marshall, John Islip
Supported by
