Waiting Request

Waiting Request 1.jpg

Mismar set up a service in the Mexican Consulate’s waiting room, offering himself as a placeholder, waiting on behalf of the people there and buying them time, while they go and spend it differently. In exchange, he asked them to fill out a form.

The service unfolded in front of CCTV cameras at the consulate, monitoring the artist all the time, ensuring he was on the job. While he was fixed and immobile, the usual waiters were ambulatory, and “free.” The footage of the wait were projected in real-time in the gallery space of the consulate.

The project was conceived to happen over a month, where Mismar would go to his job at the consulate according to a fixed schedule. Two weeks in, however, he had to suspend the service because of the friction it caused and the debates it stirred within the consulate, particularly around his presence and usefulness, and around what the management considers as art.

Performance, video installation.
San Francisco, 2013