AN ITINERANT STREET PERFORMANCE MARKS THE FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE OF AIDAN AMORE ACCOMPANIED BY HIS ALTER EGO MINIMI© in Zürich-City 29 October 2022.

“Life on Mars… Are we for real ? Aiming for life out of space, life in the digital Metaverse, and inside other-wordly dimensions when life is deserting our Mother Earth… ? According to late French philosopher, Bruno Latour, the world’s “modernity” seems to have reached a limit if not an end… And you, what do YOU think about it ? What do you have to say about what Latour again, calls “the critical zone” of Earthlings, in which (in his opinion) Humankind has still not quite “landed” on in 2022 despite the emergency of global warming ? Do you even know what the critical zone is ? Myself, I didn’t have a clue until recently… ” (~ Aidan Amore, October 2022)

Entering in direct contact with the population, the happening ARE WE FOR REAL ? following the launch of the music video Life On Mars aims to make use of Aidan Amore’s persona as an attention grabber, (pretext or rather good excuse) to kickstart a discussion with passersby as a way to better interview collective communities on their conception of “modernity”, with the benefits it evokes but also the downfalls it provokes.

Initiated upon Amore’s recent encounter with the works of Bruno Latour following his recent passing, the performance has no ambition other than sharing the artist’s new-found curiosity for the concept of the “arts of the critical zone“, or in other words: ways to go about representing and bringing focus to what the CRITICAL ZONE OBSERVATORIES U.S. NSF NATIONAL PROGRAM describe as: “Earth’s permeable near-surface layer… from the tops of the trees to the bottom of the groundwater. It is a living, breathing, constantly evolving boundary layer where rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms interact. These complex interactions regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources, including our food production and water quality.”

Live-streamed on social media, the street performance asks for a collective archival of the performer’s passage across the streets of Zürich as he asks himself and others: “Are We for Real ? Worrying about how to take off and leave who knows where, when we haven’t yet learned to land for long-term rooting on the part of the Earth’s environment in which we as humans interact.”

If like the artist the question leaves you intrigued, or to the contrary leaves you indifferent, angry, sad, ecstatic, hopeful, optimistic, pessimistic, suicidal… whatever the state, the performance invites whoever wishes to join the conversation to share a testimonial in whichever form they feel is the most appropriate to express their state at this given point in our collective History.

Participants can share pictures, texts, links, and any other resources by tagging Aidan Amore on their favoured social media, or even further the discussion by joining the group Are We for Real ? on Facebook and Discord. Testimonials of all kinds will thus find a place to coexist online in a shared public space, without pressure to create consensus nor division.