Beating the Bounds [1]

Performance



How do we define the boundaries of an art space, an exhibition, or an artwork? This participatory performance follows the superintendent of the Golden Gate Building at 210 Canal Street, someone who has maintained the building for the last 10 years. He led the way through other tenants' spaces, shared public areas, and spaces not usually accessible to visitors. Participants engaged in gentle gestures with hand-held branches, holding, passing, tapping, and tracing, attuning to the building's contours and the quiet care he extends into every corner of the community around him.



Participatory Performance 
gmtc, New York 
2025

Guide: Mr. He with Junlin Zhu
Photography: (Thea) Thiên An

[1] Beating the Bounds takes its name from an old British tradition of walking a parish perimeter with children; a collective act of remembering and maintaining the social fabric of communal life.


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