When I Occupy the Present

2019, 7.38 mins

When I Occupy the Present was driven by Zaharia's interest in the performative nature of the “artist talk” and its widespread use within the contemporary art world. Taking as its starting point the much popular Power Point presentation, the film tries to imagine a theatrical situation where ‘making and ‘speaking’ could become synonymous ways of creating and sharing artistic knowledge.

Using as a set the iconic theatre hall at Casa Tineretului in Timisoara, which also doubled as a courtroom during the 1989 revolution trials in Romania, the film explores the performative nature of the ‘artist talk’ by imagining a dramatic situation in which PowerPoint and theatre terminology are shaping our relationship

with the self.

Performers: Olga Török and Victoria Rusu

‘When I Occupy the Present’ was commissioned by the Art Encounters Biennial 2019.