Ball and Wall (1982)

Performance/Installation, Middelburg (NL)

The performance takes place in a former planetarium. The windows and doors are nailed up with boards, the only entrance is a door at the side of the building. In the middle of the room hang two metal balls, filled with sand. A fluorescent stick and a pocket torch, lying on the floor are the only source of light.
Boegel and Holtappels start to swing the balls in the same rhythm of their breathing, getting faster until the balls touch the metal plates, that hang at the end of the room.
Now the balls get pushed with more and more strength and then with the energy of a last push the balls keep swinging up and down in the room for a while.
A cassette-player with an endless tape starts to play the sound of a barking dog. Boegel and Holtappels brick up the door. Closed in are the left overs from the performance and for hours the barking of the dog on tape.