(DE)CONSTRUCTION performed installation 2008

(De)Construction is a site-responsive performed installation created for My Site | in Space 4 in November 2008. A response to two interconnected encounters: with the Lebanese city of Beirut and with the Resistance Gallery in London's east-end, the work reacted to the Resistance Gallery's ethos to create, destroy and recreate and explores the resonance of these words when reflecting on Beirut.

A backdrop of sounds from Beirut; of construction, falling concrete, traffic, people and a call for prayer; are played in original direction and in reverse, resonating from within a corner of the space. The performer sits at a desk, upon which lies a map of Beirut. A second map in fragments, a jigsaw puzzle of the London tube map, spreads across this, reminding us of the vast city and its imposing infrastructure. Staged across the surface of the desk are a network of isolated areas of (de)construction, commanded by a set of rules that take cues from passing trains overhead.

"Two things struck me in Beirut: the sound, which resonates the city's personality and history and from which you can never escape: and the state of flux between destruction and construction, which are often impossible to distinguish between. Therefore, on arriving at the Resistance Gallery and hearing the words "construct, destruct and reconstruct", I decided to explore my presence in the railway arch and my memory of Beirut through these words." alys

The work talks of the fragility of the city. It remaps two cities within one encounter and is a working exploration of the human infatuation with (de)(re)construction.

(De)Construction can be re-exhibited as a multimedia Installation. Replacing live performance with video, the piece traces the patterns that occurred during the remapping on-site.

Performed by Alys Williams. Photograph credits: Stephen Williams

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