credit Helen Bailey
A public art work and kinetic human sculpture that leaves behind a trail of gold. Gifts for the Future gives away £1,000 in exchange for positive actions that cost nothing. The work orientates towards a passing public who may happen upon the event in their ordinary activities in a public space.
Gifts for the Future at Sneinton Market in Nottingham in September 2017 involved seven performers moving slowly through the market place each following the simple score ‘move when you breath in, still when you breath out.’ Time is stretched as this oddly meditative collective place 1,000 £1 coins on the ground in a long, undulating line. The public are then invited to un-make this work – by taking away a gift of 10 coins – and to re-make the work – by agreeing to undertake a future positive action that costs nothing. Each decides their own specific future action. Discussions between performers and participants reflect on what kinds of action might be ‘positive’, the value we place on time and the economy of the gift. One hundred future positive actions accumulate to be activated beyond the timeframe of the event – gifts for the future.
Article written prior to the first performance of the piece is on this website here
Breathing Line: Gifts for the Future is originally commissioned and produced by Dance4