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Ira, An event which I found very interesting and which was not gallery finish at all was a performance I was involved with at Cambridge. Josef Beuys came for an opening of his Kettle's Yard exhibition of drawings, which was leg 3 of a tour of public gallery shows that were a build up for a selling show of vitrines at D'Offay's. Beuys was to give a lecture in a big lecture theatre on the science site but it wasn't "real" lecture of course but a performance. This was 81 or 82 and I was to video the event for Beuys. He arrived late and apparently exhausted but not in an ambulance. He worked through the event making a text on a big blackboard while his young daughter read a long text which became a kind of background There was a question and answer session but he evaded all questions, didn't deal with them, talked about something else. The whole session built up boredom, unfulfilled expectations, incomprehension. He spent long pauses looking at the blackboard from elsewhere on the big stage and then made slight adjustments. All this very intently.In the end there were just a few words and a big triangle in chalk. Later at the drawings show opening he broke off in the middle of sentences and went off to repair a piece or instruct his assistant. I was very impressed with the purity and commitment of his work and the humour of it which was unexpected for me -- I hadn't realised, reading about his work, looking at photos, how ludicrousand funny it was, like Beckett. Anyway the use of text was a mime show of summing up but delivering nothing -- and in that academic space it really pissed people off. This was a very important experience though my response to it is still mostly emotional. TL ___________________________ Dr Tony Lopez Reader in Poetry University of Plymouth Faculty of Arts & Education Douglas Avenue Exmouth EX8 2AT UK tel: 1395 255418 fax: 1395 264196 ______________________ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%