Invited to perform at the opening of the Performing Space Conference outside the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, in Nafplio, Greece, I presented a site-specific, performance about precarious balance, fragility, and symbolic weight. This work is the second iteration of my performative head-balancing gesture: my head becomes a fulcrum, and instead of the bamboo shoulder pole inspired by traditional Chinese load-carrying, I use a 1. 8-metre olive branch. In this context, the olive branch works on two levels: it carries the symbolic weight of peace, and it becomes a physical scale and counterbalance. A single wind chime from the original work hangs at one end, while olive leaves counterbalance it. This turns peace into something precarious, something held in balance, dependent on fragile elements, and easily broken. The performance moves from the earlier bamboo shoulder pole toward a meditation on peace as something balanced, unstable, and easily lost, deepened by the setting outside the National Gallery in Nafplio. It ends when the balance is abruptly broken by the olive branch and wind chime.

Natural Equilibrium

10 minutes performance

Olive Branch, Wind Chimes, Mirror

National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum,

Nafplio. Greece

2024