This past weekend, 36 dachshund dog delegates took post at Harbourfront Centre in a replica United Nations assembly on Human Rights as part of Harbourfront's
2013 World Stage performances. The theatrical experiment was the work of Australian artist Bennett Miller's "Dachshund UN," a travelling show designed to encourage people to think beyond the spectacle of the Geneva convention and consider why its happening.
"The raison d’être is a serious proposal to the audience, it’s not just a gimmick [...] it’s really an attempt to propose the idea of chaos and the utopian world, and also the idea of what active viewership means when there is no control over what is necessarily happening on stage [...] how does an audience fill in the blanks as it were," Salon quotes World Stage artistic director Tina Rasmussen from a video (below) featured on Harbourfront's website.
In an article about the event featured in Salon, it was reported that the dogs were kept on leashes with their owners hidden nearby to prevent anything "from getting too feral."
The dogs represented 36 delegates and were chosen because they are a diverse breed, according to Rasmussen. They sat leashed behind country signs from France to Argentina. In the video, Rasmussen says she wants people to ask, "Why and how does this affect me?"
The show will move on to Montreal next. Miller's previous animal installations have featured greyhounds and monkeys. Salon reports Miller fell in love with the city and was quite smitten by our raccoons. He is considering them as inspiration for his next subject.
Read the original story
here and additional information from Harbourfront
here.
Original Source: Salon