A Space Without A Use

A Space without a Use is an installation and participatory event that was housed in one of twenty temporary shipping containers that were setup in the harbour of Wellington, New Zealand. This project proposes a space without a use, a room without necessity. Two performers welcomed the visitors, and small beakers filled to the brim with water are given to those who want to enter the space, the precarious load slowing down their rhythms and suspending habits. The work draws on Georges Perec’s writing in Species of Spaces and other Pieces (2008), in which he considered the possibility of a space without a use. Uselessness, traditionally associated with failure and waste, here constitutes an alternative to the ubiquitous modern credo of productivity and purpose. Uselessness is claimed as that which renders us more human. The project was re-presented in the UK at the Hastings Fringe, Hastings 2017, at Liquidscapes, Dartington 2018, and as part of Communal, University of Brighton Galleries in May 2019.