This performance is a part of FADO’s IDea series, and was co-presented by Toronto Free Gallery at the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art.

In Search of Friedrich Nichtmargen / From Uncreative Travel Book XXII [Surface Area 510,100,934 KM2 196.950.168 miles2] (short title: In Search of Friedrich Nichtmargen) will unfold as a series of talks (public and personal), actions, lectures and installations situated around the city, and a presence that aims to establish an ontological framework for the IDea of Friedrich Nichtmargen. Vassya Vassileva invites Toronto audiences to meet with her at the end of each day at Toronto Free Gallery. At that time she will share the daily results of her research through conversations, displays of the evidence she uncovers, and field trips to various local sites of interest.

Vassya Vassileva has been in search of the artist Friedrich Nichtmargen since Thursday, 4 Nov 2004 14:42:37 -0800 (PST). Upon losing him, Vassileva cancelled her engagements in order to search for all vestiges of evidence of his existence. According to Friedrich Nichtmargen, every declared identity is misleading, unhelpful and irrelevant – a pure diagnosis. In explaining her reasons for believing she might find traces of Friedrich in Toronto, Ms. Vassileva sent this fragmentary message:

I was informed by the artist Hermann Hessler that Friedrich intended to go to the Canadian woods in relation to the ‘indispensability of measuring the distance between certain kinds of trees.’ I decided at once that the next geographical locality of my quest shall be Canada. During my stay in Toronto I will search for Friedrich Nichtmargen. In order to prefigure his local appearance, I shall strictly follow his own rules of mathematical formalization while scrutinizing geographical twists and measuring the distance by my own…

Additional performance: October 19 @ 8:00pm
XPACE Cultural Centre, 303 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

© Vassya Vassilev, In Search of Friedrich Nichtmargen, 2006. Photo Henry Chan.