durational performance: 6 hours
"New Performance Turku"; The Park of Turku Cathedral / Kirjakahvila; Turku, Finland. 2012
Working from the Finnish proverb ’He needs a long candle who awaits the death of another’, passersby were invited to write on a sheet of paper:
1. who they wish would vanish from their life,
2. what the consequences of this disappearance might be on their life,
3. and to whom are they themselves a constant source of misery / irritation / angst.
Participants were then taught how to roll this sheet into a beeswax candle of any length they saw fit. At sundown we held a Mahjong party - by the light of the candles - which came to an end when the last candle burned out. Mahjong is played (oddly) at funeral wakes throughout Asia to keep the corpse company, and to renew and strengthen communal ties.
photos by Marina Widén