mercedes bends

we survived.

24 hours of art making, 24 hours of hotel california, 24 hours of breathing in dust. Photos will be uploaded soon for those who couldn't drag themselves to Beijing Film Studio #1, but from the looks of it, I would say it was a success. we had people coming in at all hours of the day and night to do a enthusiastic renditions of Hotel California. Spoken word, interpretive dance, electronic noise and more karaoke than you could shake a stick at. Surprisingly, no one complained, but I think it was because they were too polite.

As I was setting up my stage, I heard the hired performers in Yu Ji's installation next to mine say to each other, "Oh great. We get to see the show." I didn't have the heart to tell them that they were going to hate me after the first couple of hours. What's worse is that at about 11pm one of them turned to me and asked, "What time does this event end?" I told him it was 24 hours, and his jaw dropped. Apperently SOMEONE forgot to mention to the actors that this was an all night gig. Amazingly enough, they didn't just get up and leave.

We also got off to an absurd start when Wu Ershan's crew spent 1.5 hours trying to get a tranquillized mule to lie down. I was asked to turn down the music so the mule would sleep and everyone was standing around watching this bizarre and semi-cruel scene take place. A sleepy mule refusing to lie down, a camera crew trying to push a mule over, and a roomful of silence.

From about 4-9am I slept on the stage wrapped in a projection screen. No,no, I didn't have the music running. The guy running the generator had to go get more gas, so we were powerless for 30 minutes. That was long enough for me to pass out on the floor.