The artist Ely Daou has completed his month-long residency at Homesession working on his performance project “Hide To Seek”
“Hide To Seek…An August In Homesession”
If someone is in hiding, they have
secretly gone somewhere where they cannot be seen or found.
Hide and Seek helps the child conquer his fear of autonomy and separation, it
gives him a platform to feel powerful endures through time.
In another part, hiding might be a tool used for avoiding social anxiety, escaping danger, and for seeking safety, such as nowadays, during the pandemic.
Hiding in unfamiliar spaces, sets up a chain of exploration, familiarization and understanding of the physical world in the space and its psychological effect on us.
“Hide To Seek…An August In Homesession” is a
series of five actions performed to an unaware audience: the Pedestrians
passing by the street; and documented from a third perspective point of view:
the Camcorder.
It consists of me Hiding for 3 consecutive hours each time, by using personal
and found objects within the space. With no one attempting to seek me (simply
because no one is aware of me playing), this game is transformed to a certain
form of a punishment. My body goes through phases of uncomfortableness and
pain, until it starts to merge with the architectural layout, becoming a
physical extension of the furniture/objects.
This “in between space” is then altered into a space of seeking the own-self
while witnessing in a way my own-self absence.
This work examines the limits and borders of my social anxiety, furthermore it raises questions concerning the future of performance art; the relation between the artist-audience and the role of documentation in live-art, during and post pandemic era.
