Artist Statement

"Halt" (2001-ongoing)

My performance series Halt (2001-ongoing) deals with our at times damaging ways of being in the world. Some of it we are aware of, some of it we are not. And even what is being done with the best intentions can end up in a disaster. On top of it, what’s good for an individual must not be beneficial for the society as a whole. So what is it that makes our doing valuable to the larger purpose of all or, as it has become prominent to ask, sustainable?

“Halt” is a performance project that comes with the wink of an eye. We all know the metaphor of cutting oneself off the branch one sits on, which we understand to be a popular expression for counterproductive behavior and doing against better knowledge. Seeing an artist performing the self-destructive behavior for real, induces humor in such a kind of action; and it is humor what makes the traumatizing way of being in the world bearable and affectionately absurd.

Richard Jochum