Chto Delat?: Performative Practices of our Time
The Ear of Society, a foam rubber ear fashioned by art collective Chto Delat?, is big enough for a grown woman to curl up inside for a moment’s rest, or perhaps to die. It beats like a heart, held up by human hands. Voices catch and stammer as they speak, shout and even scream into it. But while it might provide a comfortable mattress, The Ear of Society offers no real respite, no answer in return to all those who plead with it, no helpline. The people’s protest needs a new form of address, and Chto Delat? – whose video (2014) dramatizes in Montreal – Chto Delat? find a way to express the absurdity and violence of their political, and personal, situations.
