In I stands Daniela Bershan explores the sculptural and performative quality of one of the most trivial and common, yet rare activities: standing still. Inspired by several examples in performance, literature and video, such as Kurt Schwitters’ Franz Muellers Drahtfruehling, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Kim Soojas’ Needle Woman, as well as by real life situations like being stood up somewhere, waiting or passing by still-standing entertainers on the streets, this performance aims to exaggerate and explore the act of standing still in the context of the exhibition. At different pass way locations around de Appel Boys’ School, the artist will stand still for one hour in five sessions.

Dependent on timing and accidental formations in the space, the performance can function as slap stick or drama. The “I” becomes an object, just another material in space. It becomes a vehicle and the rim between reality and fiction, humor and analysis, between something and nothing. I stands can in this sense be used as an instrument to look at the inside/outside of the context, the exhibition, the everyday life, the practice/the institution, the self and the others.

Images: Daniela Bershan, I stands, 2012, photos by Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk