Donghee NamDE

100 Tage – Was möglich ist : sich um sich zu kümmern

Multimedia Room Installation & Performance · 2018–2019

The keys of an old keyboard instrument in the dark, lit from one side, with an index card typed "repair" beside them

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

(100-Day Working Series: Taking Care of Oneself)

My intention is to let things be themselves.

John Cage

The elements of the installation

Nine sound sources with self-made and prepared instruments, moving sound sources, video from the 100-day documentation, hypomnemata, 52 performance instructions (each 13 × 8 cm, later printed as a leporello, September 2019), and abandoned everyday objects.

This work series stems from a 100-day self-experiment exploring the balance between personal existence, motherhood, and artistic practice. Through daily exercises, the home was embraced as a microcosm, fostering mindfulness and acceptance within the limits of possibility. The project also raises societal questions about depressive phases as a byproduct of a performance-driven system. It resulted in a room installation of documentation materials and everyday objects, with a nightly performance during the exhibition.

Documentation of the 100 days, 6:44

Video: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

A rotary card file on a carpet, the open card says "Petrichor" in handwriting

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

The installation re-presents how those 100 days passed — not a letting-go, but a holding-on, a form of preservation. The nightly performance is the invitation back to here and now.

Diploma project at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, 2018/19. One copy of the Leporello Performances for Depression is held in the collection of Zentrum für Künstlerpublikationen, Weserburg.

A room with cushions on a carpet; on the wall above them a projection of a person seen upside down, and in front, on the carpet, a rotary card file

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

  • Two black hoops hanging from the ceiling, in the nearer one a small black fan on a cord, the farther one out of focus
  • Two black hoops with small fans hanging from the ceiling, below them on the wall a pale band of light that ends at a small keyboard, index cards along the wall
  • The cane back of a chair in warm light, on its arm a wooden board with a small fan and a chrome bell, index cards with typed text on the wall behind

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

  • A black bentwood coat stand against a white wall, an index card with typed text on one hook and an old cassette recorder hanging at the bottom
  • The hooks of a black coat stand with an orange telephone handset hanging from one of them, the long shadow of the stand and a coiled cord on the wall behind

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

Index cards with typed text on a white wall, each held in place with plasters

Photo: Donghee Nam, Pauline Fabry

Year
2018–2019
Period
Self-experiment 13 June – 20 September 2018 · Premiered at the KHM Rundgang, 10–14 July 2019
Medium
Multimedia Room Installation & Performance
Venue
Academy of Media Arts Cologne