Requiem for Mobile Telephones 2010

Lubo Kristek's "Requiem for Mobile Telephones" is an action painting performed in front of an audience, with painting, dance, and technology all rolled into one. I can imagine Kristek and his fellow performers attacking this canvas, with so many bodies working to make it happen, to create a site of inquiry for the artist and the viewer. I see dancers in pink tutus stamping paint onto the canvas with their toes, a collection of discarded mobile phones, and a priest figure blessing the painting with holy water. The surface is pure chance, with the performers all working together with intent. I am sure that Kristek has a philosophical reason for staging this performance – the death of telephones, and the birth of painting? – but I like to think that he wanted to be a painter in the moment, and be touched by the moment, to get caught up with the paint and bodies and energy. It is a conversation across time, with lots of room for interpretation.