by and with: Antonia Baehr & Lindy Annis
Creation, Coproduction and Residency:
les Subsistances, 2006/2007, Lyon, France
Production Administration: Ulrike Melzwig

A half an hour about the construction of biography and identity and the gesture of smoking a pipe

„Nom d’une Pipe“ is a collaboration between two Berlin artists, the American Lindy Annis and the German Antonia Baehr and the small gesture of smoking a pipe.

For the length of time it takes to smoke a pipe, Antonia Baehr and Lindy Annis hold a dialogue of biographies. Yet, as the smoke slowly rises toward the ceiling, their life stories begin to merge and mutate, reinvent and disintegrate. In this age of Bio swap and identity theft “Nom d’une Pipe” looks at the existential nature of biography and the true authorship of identity.

„Nom d’une Pipe“ is based on Vilém Flusser’s book „Gesten. Versuch einer Phänomenologie.“, chapter 7:  „The gesture of smoking a pipe.“

Antonia Baehr has been smoking a pipe since her 18th birthday. Lindy Annis only smokes a pipe for this performance.