Jang Dong He
Opera for Coincidental Audience
2018
Golden Visa: The right granted to citizens of third countries to purchase property in Greece worth over €250,000 in order to obtain a residence permit and, eventually, Greek citizenship.
In 2017, in an abandoned house in the center of Athens, in Thissio, a vinyl record belonging to the former owner was discovered. It was the Opera H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert & Sullivan, a work set aboard a ship that humorously addresses the class divisions of England in 1878.
Two years later, a letter from the Urban Planning Department was sent to the new owner at the same building, containing instructions for protective measures that needed to be taken around and on the structure.
The artists create an opera for a coincidental audience at this location, using the found elements and information they discovered in the building, aiming to comment on the major transformation of the city. Sphinxes create the new owner's workers, designing their uniforms.
The windows of the house become entrances, and the urban planning instructions transform from scaffoldings into workers' ladders.
Video
Duration: 3:21’’
Music: Opera H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert & Sullivan
Installation: Five costumes, five vases with water, metallic ladders, vinyl
The workers of the new owner bring with them jars of water in order to speed up the change of the building. These small movements will bring a big social change.
Installation Ladders
17 pieces
Material: Metal
Dimensions: Each piece
1 m Height × 50 cm Width