21 Mar 2019

Bill Burns - Performance at La Capataza, Buenos Aires

Bill Burns will perform elements from A Trip of Goats and a reading from his book Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us.

A Trip of Goats is a long duration performance.

It goes something like this but it is still a work in progress. First a trip of goats is acquired. We set off from Argentina for England, then Greece, then Egypt, followed by Lebanon, Georgia, Turkey and Slovenia before returning to Canada. After the business of arranging and transporting our trip of goats from Argentina to England and Greece we trade them for a load of raw honey. By and by we depart Greece, with two container loads of honey, bound for Egypt. After receiving our moorage assignment at Alexandria we haggle for several days finally reaching a deal for the exchange of honey for crude oil. Once we have made a honey for oil swap we arrange shipping through changeable waters toward Lebanon. Now in Beirut, we exchange the crude oil for olives. From Beirut we conduct ourselves through swarms of traffic toward the Bosphorus passing through by barge and tug then continuing to the Black Sea port of Anaklia in Georgia. Sliding into a slip at Anaklia we start to negotiate a trade of olives for timber. We hurtle back toward Turkey with an impressive load of timber. We barter for tree nuts and black pepper. Our load of nuts and peppercorns is now bound by truck for Slovenia where we trade for sheep. From Trieste we transport the sheep back to England by sea and rail then on to Halifax Nova Scotia where we trade the sheep for bees. This cycle can be repeated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us is a book about his life in the world of art it is published by Black Dog Publishing (London UK) and YYZ BOOKS (Toronto Canada)

The book with contributions by Mr. Burns, Jennifer Allen, Dan Adler, and Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda speculates on brown-nosing with particular reference to contemporary art and the special relationships between the artist, the curator, the collector, and the art museum. The project casts a critical eye on the conditions of art production as well as the catalogue of art history and hagiography. It proposes that the machinations of the art world and marketplace reflect a wider discourse. It asks a question that has no answer: 'What do we long for?'

Mr Burns will also show some drawings and multiples about the art industry.
He is grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for generously supporting this project.

More information: www.billburnsprojects.com