Noah Holtwiesche

Works for Live Art Denmark
2007 “Signifying Nothing” at Berliner Luft 3
2014 “Aibi/Alias” at Samtalekøkken, Inkonst Malmö

Signifying Nothing
Standing close to his audience in a small basement room, after a lengthy introduction in which he explains the title (referring to the number zero), Noah informs the audience about his aim to establish an energy flow between them and a piece of steel, and what to do to end the performance. Noah then ceremoniously takes of his suitcoat, hangs it up, and leaves through the door behind him. Through the door he left open we see him in the next room, where he repeatedly lifts a length of steel beam and slams it loudly to the floor. After returning to the first room, he makes pop corn without putting a lid on the pan, sits on the floor next to his hotplate to read long lists of names, people and words, while occasionally picking up a piece of popcorn from the floor and eating it. When he is done, he leaves through the same door as before, and continues through a second door, this one a heavy duty steel fire security door, at the other end of the room. The audience rise to follow him through both doors. The last spectator brings along a small red suitcase, all exactly as instructed.

Videostills: Karl Stampes and Peter Sloth Madsen

Alibi/Alias
For an edition of Samtalekøkken in Inkonst in Malmö/Sweden, Noah performed “Alibi/Alias”. Again the room is sparsely lit, and again Noah has a lot to say. This time, a loud noise, presumable a gong, accentuates his reading which contains, among other things, frequent changes of the title of the performance.

About the Artist
Noah Holtwiesche lives in Vienna and works between performance art, theatre, culture studies and psychoanalysis. He is founder of Performance Art Network Vienna and member of Neue Wiener Gruppe/Lacan-Schule.

This website is dedicated to some of Noah’s work.