Pugnae Spectaculum - a boxing performance in collaboration with Robert Johansson

Performance at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway 15/11 2002
Sweet Punch, exhibition at Gallery GUN, Oslo, Norway, Feb. 2003
Shown as a video work/documentation in "Sweet Punch: Recent Nordic Video", The Physics Room, Christchurch (NZ) 2006
Te Tuhi – The Mark, Auckland (NZ) 2006 and New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington (NZ) 2007

-Why do we want to see violence and what´s the attraction?
-Why this longing for something ”real” and non-fictive?
-What´s victory and defeat?
-The fact that a man and a woman go up in a boxing ring, what are the reactions?
-What expectations did the audience have?

Those were some of the questions that came up during the edification and countdown prior to the event. It gave out as being a boxing match, but it eventually became something else. Every attendant, consciously or unconsciously, played a role in the scenario which made Pugnae Spectaculum.
For three months we trained at a boxing club, as we swallowed everything we got hold of concerning boxings athletic, philosophical, social and historical perspectives.
The game was launched through a poster and drawing campaign, mainly with violent Roman gladiator quotes. On the day of the match big articles were published in two of the largest papers, whereas visitors were urged to come, and thus resulting in a totally packed arena.
We knew that when up in the ring, we could/would lose control. Therefore a great effort was made in the framing and shaping of the event. We chose personal animal symbols together with Latin nick names. Robert ”Durata Caput”( hardened head) had a red deer while Vanna chose a rooster and called herself ”Manus Rotantes” (rotating hand). Those symbols were to be seen on our handmade robes and sporting costumes as well as on the champions belt.
A boxing ring and a referee was hired and grandstands for 150 spectators were built.
For the pauses between the rounds four number girls were engaged. A little costume clad boy carried the champions belt.
To stimulate a stir up among the audience, three professional wind players improvised to the pace and punches of the match.
Master of ceremony was the artist, theoritician and boxing enthusiast Lars Vilks.
The audience was thrown between violence and entertainment, leaving everyone their own reactions towards this ambivalence.

-What role do you play as a spectator and do you have a responsibility when being part of an audience?
-What´s our reactions to violence?
-What´s being regarded as personal and public?
-When is something looked upon and/or felt as real contra fictive?

 see pictures