An 'auto performative-installation', where the audience performs and shapes
the visual narrative, Elmgreen & Dragset present a configuration of
payphones for functional use. Visitors are encouraged to connect with
family and friends around the world for free. But in a layer of complexity
that further subverts the conventions of public and private behavioral
patterns, the calls are monitored (by other visitors) and recorded in a
readily accessible adjacent room. Raising issues of voyeurism and
surveillance, the work seems particularly relevant in the context of modern
global communication and the loss of the right to privacy.
Providing a platform, on which the drama of social exchange will be
improvised and performed by the audience, the installation explores an
artwork's reach and potential for communication. By simple means the work
extends beyond the physical limits of the gallery's architectural
conditions, reaching through space and vast distance. The visitor will
function as the mediator of the show in a direct way by describing it to
the person on the other end of the phone line, thereby establishing a
concrete link between the activity within the gallery and the outside.