“Have you ever dreamt of being another person? Our LIFE
EXCHANGE program offers you a unique opportunity to become someone else just for a weekend.” This
is the announcement for a new “ARTICIPATORY” project by Wooloo Productions. At a
yet to be disclosed site in lower Manhattan, in a storefront or similar location, Wooloo will invite
applicants for its project to undergo an identity change. Anyone can participate. The only requirements
are living quarters in and around NYC, the willingness to give a complete stranger your property, your
apartment with all personal belongings, cell phone, computer, clothing etc., for a minimum of 24 hours.
In return, you are given access to someone else’s life, to his or her apartment, clothes, friends ...
etc.
The LIFE EXCHANGE project is taking place
in conjunction with PERFORMA 07 - the Biennial of New Visual Art Performance in New York City. On November
1, fifteen selected participants will open the exhibition, and during this week of events, volunteers
can exchange their lives - for a certain amount of time. Exhibition viewers can also spontaneously take
part. The procedure is as follows: In an interview moderated by Wooloo, personal details are recorded,
such as “Do you shave under your arms?“ After this inventory has been taken of your personal characteristics,
preferences and routines comes the “redressing” ritual. Every participant receives a number to a locker
in a changing room. Here, you must leave behind everything that you were wearing up to that point and
change into neutral clothing. You are then assigned a new identity, given keys to an apartment and the
corresponding outfit and living habits. You leave the exhibition as a completely different person; everything
else lies in your own hands.
LIFE EXCHANGE is not
just about satisfying your curiosity or getting to try something new and different. Most of all, the
project is a TRUST experiment. Are you willing to give your keys to a complete stranger? Can you entrust
your personal belongings to someone you have never met? Are you going to forego any security measures?
Can you trust yourself? These are the kinds of questions that explore the fear and everyday mistrust
people experience in New York City - particularly since 9-11. By institutionalizing rules and rituals,
the exhibition tries to construct its own small microcosm, which is intended to show how fear and mistrust
have become normal components of our contemporary society.
The LIFE
EXCHANGE exhibition is part of an art project series by Wooloo Productions that investigates social
reality. In this project, the observer is given the possibility to become actively involved and to experience
the ultimate change in perspective.
Applications for the LIFE
EXCHANGE exhibition will be accepted until midnight October 15, 2007 (Pacific Standard Time).
Apply now at www.wooloo.org/project.php?id=13!
Link
www.wooloo.org
