Imposter Syndrome
Performance/Installation
CU
Moscow
2024
The gastronomic performance Imposter Syndrome explores the theme of one of the main psychological characteristics of a participant in the creative industries - the doubt about the choices. After all, in order to create new experiences one must go into unknown territory. There is a chance to win the applause of the audience, and there is a chance to be misunderstood, booed, and therefore excluded.
Overcoming doubts and implementing what has been planned is the essence of a creative person's life: a producer, an artist, a chef, an entrepreneur. The performance demonstrates the metaphor of the creative act, its rejection or the rejection by the public and its instant transformation into a desirable product with emotional and gastronomic value, a product that unites the community
The performance is a public cooking of nicoise salad, which is then offered to the guests as a festive trea
Overcoming doubts and implementing what has been planned is the essence of a creative person's life: a producer, an artist, a chef, an entrepreneur. The performance demonstrates the metaphor of the creative act, its rejection or the rejection by the public and its instant transformation into a desirable product with emotional and gastronomic value, a product that unites the community
The performance is a public cooking of nicoise salad, which is then offered to the guests as a festive trea
In front of the golden curtain (stage) with the performance poster, a few metres away, the chef is preparing the food: slicing tomatoes, peeling eggs, sorting out salad greens. As guests crowd the room, the chef prepares a dish for the evening ahead.
As the event begins, the performer enters the stage head-to-toe covered in a protective costume. He climbs onto a chair and begins to read the Shakespearean monologue - "To be or not to be". This action sparks the interest of the assembled audience. The chef who slices the salad infront of the performer becomes ferocious and throws eggs, then tomatoes, then anchovies, at the performer. His act of rejection and aggression is taken up by the other spectators in the audience - they grab the ingredients from the table and throw them at the figure by the golden curtain, and the ППСС duo -the cameo of the event, who lurk on the balcony, piles a box of salad leaves on top. By the time the monologue is over, the salad preparation is complete. The performer gets down from the chair and takes off his protective suit.
As the event begins, the performer enters the stage head-to-toe covered in a protective costume. He climbs onto a chair and begins to read the Shakespearean monologue - "To be or not to be". This action sparks the interest of the assembled audience. The chef who slices the salad infront of the performer becomes ferocious and throws eggs, then tomatoes, then anchovies, at the performer. His act of rejection and aggression is taken up by the other spectators in the audience - they grab the ingredients from the table and throw them at the figure by the golden curtain, and the ППСС duo -the cameo of the event, who lurk on the balcony, piles a box of salad leaves on top. By the time the monologue is over, the salad preparation is complete. The performer gets down from the chair and takes off his protective suit.
With his assistants, the performer returns to the stage, where they take the plastic sheet by the edges and lift it so that the ingredients are pushed to the centre. With sterile garden forks and shovels, they arrange the ingredients on a giant glass dish. It's set on the table, the chef makes a couple of final accents and the salad begins to be served to the event guests. At the same time, a portion is used to make pan bagnat sandwiches, a speciality from Nice, filled with nicoise salad.
The performance embodies a familiar plot from antiquity, which later became particularly polar at Milan's La Scala theatre, and harkens back to the figure of the clackers, or plant. Clackers were hired by rival theatres to provoke the crowd into booing the performance, throwing tomatoes at the unwanted artist, using the effect of social proof - the phenomenon of the crowd.
But there is a twist, the scattered vegetables became the main course for the guests, while the performer remained untainted, untouched by the crowd's opinion.
The reference for the event was Alyson Knowles' performance "I'm Making a Giant Salad".
The performance embodies a familiar plot from antiquity, which later became particularly polar at Milan's La Scala theatre, and harkens back to the figure of the clackers, or plant. Clackers were hired by rival theatres to provoke the crowd into booing the performance, throwing tomatoes at the unwanted artist, using the effect of social proof - the phenomenon of the crowd.
But there is a twist, the scattered vegetables became the main course for the guests, while the performer remained untainted, untouched by the crowd's opinion.
The reference for the event was Alyson Knowles' performance "I'm Making a Giant Salad".