Chryssa Tsampazi

This piece was presented at a performance festival taking place as part of the 3rd Biennial l of Thessaloniki. I was invited by the organisers to work with the hostel of unaccompanied, underage refugees from the social organisation ARSIS and to present a performance making use of some of its human resources. I designed two routes of 30 minutes, each from different starting points, with taxis crossing the city and arriving at the same time at the Allah Ja Imaret, the meeting point with the public. Four kids took part in the performance. Accompanied by an off-duty policeman, they took these rides in pairs towards a common destination. The taxi drivers were instructed to remain silent and neutral during the whole ride and to allow their vehicle to become a semi-private space for my guests. The conversations that took place in the taxis were not recorded. At the meeting point, the three taxis lined up among the crowd, all the doors were opened and the conversation ceased. The public could then view the work at that moment of completion: the abrupt cessation of the narration and the awkwardness of the participants from all sides. The performance remained in this still state for the last twenty minutes.