Project No:Project
Description
P*
Performative Drawing is an ongoing research and production series by Piknik Works that brings together drawing, body, and space as a performative act. The project explores drawing not as representation, but as an activating force—capable of transforming spatial perception, intensifying creative processes, and revealing the tacit relationship between physical action, mental states, and environment.
The first iteration, Performative Drawing #1 – Swedish Chapel in Istanbul, took place within a hidden chapel inside the Swedish Consulate, near the dense urban flow of İstiklal Avenue. Over a continuous 72-hour period, the artists lived inside the space and covered all interior surfaces through uninterrupted drawing. Produced without prior planning, the work unfolded as a contemporary fresco—layering references from cave paintings to art history, alongside fragments of contemporary culture shaped by digital life, social media, and technological transformation. The process itself became as significant as the result, turning drawing into a durational, bodily, and spatial performance.
The first iteration, Performative Drawing #1 – Swedish Chapel in Istanbul, took place within a hidden chapel inside the Swedish Consulate, near the dense urban flow of İstiklal Avenue. Over a continuous 72-hour period, the artists lived inside the space and covered all interior surfaces through uninterrupted drawing. Produced without prior planning, the work unfolded as a contemporary fresco—layering references from cave paintings to art history, alongside fragments of contemporary culture shaped by digital life, social media, and technological transformation. The process itself became as significant as the result, turning drawing into a durational, bodily, and spatial performance.
The second iteration, Performative Drawing #2 – Living Ground Floors, continued this exploration in Stockholm, focusing on the relationship between everyday life and ground-level urban spaces. Through continuous drawing, the space was gradually filled with narratives emerging from daily routines, conversations, and observations—extending the idea of drawing as a living and evolving storytelling medium.
As an ongoing framework, the project has expanded into different contexts and formats. In Performative Drawing #4 – Piknik Salon, realized at Jerusalem Design Week 2022, a dining room was used as a performative setup. Beginning from a fully white space, the team transformed the environment over seven days through drawings, texts, and interactions—developing a spontaneous narrative shaped by visitors, discussions, and the immediacy of the moment.
Across all iterations, Performative Drawing positions space itself as a canvas and drawing as a time-based action. Referencing a long lineage from cave walls to religious interiors, the project revisits the storytelling potential of space—questioning its diminished role in contemporary environments. Neither permanent nor predetermined, the work embraces spontaneity, temporality, and the energy of the ordinary, proposing an alternative mode of spatial production between art and architecture while transforming into an play-act that feeds and exhibits Piknik's design practice.