During the 2010 ANTI Performance Art Festival in Koupio, Finland, I spent all day every day making apologies. During the 10 days that I was on Finnish soil, I spoke no words except for "I'm Sorry" in an effort to compensate for screwing things up in an earlier, romantic relationship with the country.
Each day I walked for 8-12 hours, making site-specific apologies commissioned by residents and attempting to connect with locals without speaking any words beyond "I'm Sorry".
The images here offer a little bit of documentation of my engagement with the town of Kuopio (most went undocumented, but I made some lasting friendships without speaking!); my participation in the larger festival in character; the 2-sided card I carried with me to explain my situation; and the tattoo I managed to acquire during the project. (A festival attendee felt that tattoos were a good way to demonstrate a serious intention to repair a broken relationship, so I obtained a small tattoo from a local tattoo artist, still without speaking.)
(Mixed media, including canvas costume, printed matter, performance, writing, tattoo.) Costume created with Jennifer Engel. Photo credit: Savon Sanomat and Pekka Mäkinen.