Expanding Private Territories: The Performative Bed

A movable performance by Ariadna Capasso and Patricia Tinajero-Baker

Project Summary:
In Carry Out we recreate the daily interaction between housed and unhoused, in such a way as to render undeniable the existence of this interaction. The bed makes visible the frontier between in and out, private and public.

The Performative Bed is a series of performances with a suitcase-bed. This is a foldable wooden bed hinged in three parts that is transported in its own case. The object was designed to fit within the size limitations of airline travel. We place this portable bed in different locations that houseless individuals identify as their home turf, for example Pearl Street Mall and Boulder Creek in Boulder, Central Park and 5th Avenue in New York City. We install and use the bed and invite curious passer-bys to participate. The performances represent the negotiation between the private versus the public sphere.

This intervention underscores the conflict faced by homeless people forced to temporarily appropriate public space for private use. The bed-suitcase symbolizes our cultural baggage. Lugging it around shows our personal negotiation between cultures.

images
carry on