Creature Live Art festival invited Hélène Lefebvre and me to perform in Kaunas, Lithuania in September 2016. The initial intention was to explore, by means of a long duration (90 minute) action, a first meeting between a a Canadian artist and myself, a Lithuanian artist.

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Prior to physically meeting in Lithuania we communicated electronically, exchanging perceptions about each other’s work and ideas we favoured about performance art. We also created a poem which as an integral part of the process and which grounded the outcome of our work. Two verses of the poem follow: It is in diversion / Believing to trust / Like fish in water // Arms do not care / They hold connection / With intervals of collapsing.

As materials, we used movement, time, the space and a block of ice, in order to question the relational concept including notions of desire, resistance and connection. Several days prior to our presentation we used the space to get to know one other and determine the connections between us which we could use as a basis for the performance.

In order to keep open the possibility of sharing our actions with the audience, we opted to take all decisions concerning our movements and manipulation of the ice in the moment. We felt confident to take this risk, which basically involved sharing boredom and experimenting with taking decisions on the spot in front of the gaze of the public. These decisions to open the action to the possibilities that would present themselves in the moment, freed us into trusting each other. The work in its durational flow allowed us to discover and share revealing moments with the audience.