Ayumi Matsuzaka
Growing Beans Project
April–July 2004, Weimar Germany
Game rules
- You will use a handkerchief for sneezing and put it in your pocket everyday.
- You will carry the beans in your pocket together with your handkerchief until the beans germinate.
- You understand the beans may have a secret energy from which to germinate.
- You will promise to meet me to let me know about how the beans develop every two weeks.
My intension was to investigate various relationship between beans-holders and myself as an artist. The standpoint and values of the artistic interventions can change with each relationship.
Basic questions were:
- How do people keep a promise between each other?
- How carefully do people grant a person’s request?
- How much detail do people keep in mind? And for how long?
- When and how do people break a promise?
- How do people deceive and tell lies?
- How often do people forget or ignore insignificant things?
- How angry can people get about insignificant things?
These questions were not explained to the 57 bean-holders in advance. I did not want to initiate a debate with them. Instead, the relationship with each of them developed differently depending upon the person.
A beans meeting was held three months after the project started. This was the first time bean-holders met each other and shared their individual bean-experiences.
