"The floor of the old barn is covered with white paper. I lie curled up in the center of the room. I draw around
my body. The resulting lines accumulate and the paper around my figure becomes darker. There are black and red crayons scattered on the floor. Children
gradually join me as they move over the space, drawing around their own silhouettes the way I draw around mine. Observing the slow, silent, and focused
performative action, some of them decide to imitate my circular movements, drawing with both hands simultaneously while their heads are touching the floor.
Others draw other shapes and images of their own choice. We are wearing red swimming caps. A video camera is suspended from the ceiling above the floor.
The resulting footage is projected on the wall. The three-dimensional world seen from a bird's eye view is translated into a flat, painterly projection,
resembling a map, with silhouettes of people and shapes of drawings continuing to change, impossible to predict.
The sound consists of a recording of an act of drawing, underwater sounds recorded during an immersion in my studio, sounds of children playing outdoors,
and site-specific sounds of birds and airplanes hovering above the barn. This sound, coming from a past reality, mirrors the children's voices in the room
during the five-hour action, the way the projected image mirrors their bodies. Our silhouettes become part of sculptural material moving through the space
of paper, like the quietly floating waters of a river. Achea Rheon (river of sorrow) is one of the five rivers separating Hades from the world. In my work
I investigate the fragile state of becoming through the metaphor of birth, such as the act of drawing before it becomes an image." (Monika Weiss)
