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The Window of Contemporary Art (WOCA) a proposal for DICA (Donkey Institute of Contemporary Art)

by Tintin Wulia

King Midas could turn anything into gold. Rumor had it that he had donkey’s ears.

After thinking for donkey’s years, I’ve finally come up with the Window of Contemporary Art (WOCA). WOCA can turn anything into contemporary art! 

The WOCA setup is simple and straightforward. On top of the usual DICA setup, you would need just any kind of window, any kind of curtain, several stools and chairs, and a desk lamp (or camping lantern).

Using WOCA is also simple and straightforward. Just sit down on either side of the window, and watch. You will be surprised how exciting mundanity is when seen through the frame of WOCA.

When the donkey decides to move, the spectators should move their stools and chairs to the new position. Even a tiny move of DICA’s donkey can make a big difference to the framing of WOCA.

Opening the window also gives a different effect. You are somewhat connected to the world that you’re watching, but still … not really. The presence of WOCA somehow allows you to ignore them.

When it gets dark, turn on the solar-powered desk lamp (or camping lantern). This will provide the effect of reflection in the glass window, temporarily converting your WOCA into a MOCA (Mirror of Contemporary Art).

Feel free to experiment when opening the window: do it quarter opened, half opened, fully opened. Once opened, the windowpane will also separate you from the other spectators on your side.

WOCA works two-ways. While people can choose to watch you, you can also choose whether to be watched. When you’re on the other side and don’t want to be watched, just pull the curtain down.

Looking at the WOCA from the other side is also as fascinating. Look at those people just sitting and watching, and moving along whenever and wherever the donkey decides to move.

Watching the WOCA from a distance is even more amazing. Look at those people watching; look at those being watched.

And look at us, watching people watching people being watched. Aren’t we all part of this big performance?

Windows were once part of walls. Thanks to WOCA, they are now liberated. Gone are the days of the window tax and all those daylight robberies. The show is now free.

“What is contemporary art?” we used to ask. With the arrival of WOCA, we now ask, “what is not contemporary art?” 

The Window of Contemporary Art (WOCA): a proposal for DICA (Donkey Institute of Contemporary Art) ©2010 Tintin Wulia for Daniel Wolfson Modeled with Google SketchUp 7.1. Models credit: desk lamp by RDrayMan 101, Light beam by MorBius, Saddle from Cavalry Mount by MorBius, Cartwheel by Aarni, Window by bocian, Rideau drapé by vick, Stool by Graham, Viennese chair by k15a, all other models by Google and Tintin Wulia.

Nous ne notons pas les fleurs (2010), video triptych, three-channel unsynchronised video loop, no audio (remote control for each video made available to viewers).

Nous ne notons pas les fleurs is a multi-form work exploring the ideas of mobility and the impermanence of political borders in contrast to the tendency to freeze them. The title of this work, Nous ne notons pas les fleurs, is taken from a dialogue in Le Petit Prince (Saint-Exupéry, 1943), where a geographer tells the Little Prince that geographers do not record flowers because, unlike the earth, flowers are ephemeral. The work originally took form as an installation and interactive performance at Soil Bite, Khoj International Workshop 2009 in Patna, India, before taking the form of the above video triptych of the same title. The work was informed by the local context – Bihar, the state of which Patna is the capital, has the highest rate of out-migration in India, and is part of the eastern region in which border problems are prominent.

The video triptych shows the map of India through a single angle, yet from three different perspectives. The single angle is the bird’s-eye view of the recording. The three perspectives differ because each portrays the event partially, through different time-scales and a different time-ranges.

The left screen portrays only the process of shaping the map, referring to the man-made process of nation building. The centre screen portrays only the process of evolution of the shape where no human is visible, referring to the natural process of geographical evolution. The right screen portrays only the process of blurring the borders, referring to the man-made process of a revolution. The three videos – as a triptych – serve as an allusion to the trinity.

It is because of the allegorical nature of Le Petit Prince that I chose to quote the phrase, we do not record flowers, and use it as the title of this work. I chose to use flowers exactly for their ephemerality, and recorded the flowers for the same reason. Based on the four-colour map theorem that I have discovered when I started working with cartography on Terra Incognita, et cetera, I used four types of fragrant flower buds that I took off from the commonly used garlands for celebration and religious ceremonies in India: the yellow marigold, orange marigold, white tuberose, and red hibiscus.

I mixed the buds of these four types of flowers together and spread the mix to form a bed of flowers. Then I shaped the map by painstakingly separating the flower buds in a bed of flowers into regions of the same colour, following the outlines of the map of India and all its states. When I finished shaping the map, I asked the audience to trace their route of movements and migrations from one state to the other. The whole process was recorded with a video camera from above, resembling the bird’s-eye view of a cartographer.

Thanks to: Khoj International Workshop, Shambhavi Singh, Sharmila Samant, Rajesh Ram, Binod Kumar Gupta, Arvind Singh, Naresh Kumar, Suchismita Mohanty, Vichukorn Tangpaiboon, Moe Satt, Akhsay Rathore, Pradeep Thallwata, Ranjeeta Kumari, sister Prema, sister Suma, father Joe, Margaret and others at Taru Mitra.