Friezing My Pants Off

This has to go down as the craziest thing I did in my life so far. Not even moving alone across the world to live in country where I don�t know anyone seem as much of an experience. This week during Frieze Fair in Regents Park I agreed to help Andr� Guedes from Lisboa 20 Arte Contempor�nea Gallery with his exhibit which is inspired by finding random articles of clothing on the street in everyday life. During spontaneous times of the day a man comes into the space, as if a regular viewer, looks around, then takes off his shirt, drops it on the floor and leaves. Then the same action only with trousers is performed by a woman. Me.
Last night I took off my jeans in a room full of people, like a crazy person, and walked through hundreds of Frieze visitors, people I know and VIP�s (including famous hotelier playboy Andr� Balazs) out through the park onto the street, down the road where a car was waiting for me. It was liberating, it was hard not to laugh, it was art, it was weird, it...was...cold.
To mentally prepare for the task I thought of a character from Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. A woman in the mental institution who told the main character that she likes to pretend she�s crazy in order to do whatever she feels like.
It was more fascinating to me how people look at you as if they�re not seeing anything out of the ordinary when you�re walking through a crowd wearing an office jacket, sneakers and underwear. You only hear people acting like they saw a mental patient after you walk past them, literally laughing behind your back.
When I crossed the street in front of car drivers rubbing their eyes to do a double-take and got into the car, I felt as if I emerged out of water after baptism. Then I realise, I have three more �actions� to perform.
For more info on Frieze or Andr� Guedes check out http://www.friezeartfair.com/yearbook_2009/artist/andre_guedes