Peng Yu & Sun Yuang: Old People's Home
Picture: Nicolas Lackner, Landesmuseum Joanneum
It was a cynical, eerie and saddeningly comical sight:
13 wheelchairbound wax dodderers dancing a hopelessly disorganized and clumsy ballet in some sort of arena inside the museum (Kunsthaus Graz).
Rolling towards the visitors with senile determination, stopping in time just to bump into each other and get stuck for good...
An old man looking like Arafat, fast asleep and drooping backwards, did not notice that he got pushed around in circles by some other semi-concious wheelchair driver, until visitors took pity on them and disentangled the tragicomic spectacle.
With white hair, age spots and wrinkles, these old men looked alarmingly real - you'd expect them to snore, or cough, or startle up. But - nothing. Still, the inanimate handicapped stirred up much puzzlement, compassion as well as reservation. Despite the inanimatedness of the mobile exhibits, visitors and museum staff involuntarily found themselves in the role of nurses and caretakers in the Old People's Home.
(One of the countless China-exhibitions at the moment: China Welcomes You, Kunsthaus Graz, until the 2nd of September)
An old man looking like Arafat, fast asleep and drooping backwards, did not notice that he got pushed around in circles by some other semi-concious wheelchair driver, until visitors took pity on them and disentangled the tragicomic spectacle.
With white hair, age spots and wrinkles, these old men looked alarmingly real - you'd expect them to snore, or cough, or startle up. But - nothing. Still, the inanimate handicapped stirred up much puzzlement, compassion as well as reservation. Despite the inanimatedness of the mobile exhibits, visitors and museum staff involuntarily found themselves in the role of nurses and caretakers in the Old People's Home.
(One of the countless China-exhibitions at the moment: China Welcomes You, Kunsthaus Graz, until the 2nd of September)
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