Josh Wirz and Axel Berger create live art about technology and the contradictions of capitalism. Sometimes this leads them to do durational performances.
On 25 March 2025, Josh Wirz spent an hour lying in a river. He was wearing a wet suit and was attached to a structure that relayed a video feed while, at the same time, David Hicks (standing in for Berger who was ill) pretended to be a news journalist reporting on the event from the bridge above.
Here is how Berger Wirz describe the performance:
We started with the idea of a figure floating in water, filmed from above by a rig-mounted camera, live-projecting the image onto the floor of a public space—making it feel like the space itself was flooded, its inhabitants trapped in water. A bleak vision of the future.
The gap between these moments—the event vs. the media's broadcasting of the event—is the focus of this work, and through it, we hope to open up a conversation about media representation, climate reporting, and how we understand the local impact of global issues.
The main interest for me was the reaction of the crowd. These rubberneckers were fascinated by the idea that a tragedy was taken place. However, they seemed only mildly disappointed when they were told it was an art event.
Here are some photos I took at the performance.
Help me understand Neil, why?