Greta Garbo

performance, collaboration Participatory performance
Greta Garbo

Who gets to be on the Swedish Krona? Imagine your face on a bank note. Circulating through the pockets of many. I visited the Skogskyrkogarden, looking for her grave......

The work was performed in Stockholm and Rotterdam as part of Education Program and Performance night. The artist invited audiences to transform them into Swedish-born Hollywood star Greta Garbo (1920s-1930s actress). The artist was drawn to Garbo's promiscuousness and fluid sexuality and her ability to embody multiple emotional states, particularly solemnity.

The artist references Roland Barthes' Mythologies, noting Garbo's 'everyday beauty' and how her face was 'almost sexually undefined.'

The performance emphasized the artist's inability to accurately impersonate Garbo, with makeup applied collectively by audience members over an hour - a collaborative transformation without instructions or predetermined outcome.