- For the performance festival Blago Bung in 2010, Per Huttner presented the performance 0K , which was developed and performed in dialogue with Turkish curator Fatos Üstek.

 

Per Huttner and Fatos Üstek appear on the wooden floor of the gallery which serves as the stage for the performance festval. She remains standing up while he sits down in a chair. He is covered in multiple layers of winter clothes, wear two hats and still shivers.

“Welcome,” she hesitates. “I do not know where to start or how to explain this. He has always loved ice-cream, but now he won’t even open his mouth,” she tries to serve him ice cream but he shrugs with his mouth shut. “We had a session this morning with Dolores, a past life regression therapist. It was a wonderful, enriching and beautiful experience. She visualized events that are part of our previous incarnations,” she smiles insecurely. “But something unexpected happened when we were on the subway back home,” she goes on. “He acted strangely and I couldn’t communicate with him” she waves her hand in front of his face. He does not react. “I assumed that it was related to the therapy, so when I got to our flat, I called Dolores. She explained that something probably triggered him to go back into a hypnotic state. He is stuck in a previous existence or in limbo between lives. She says,” the woman does not seem convinced by her own words. “He has been shivering all day. Oh man, he has been shivering like hell, not unlike a malaria crisis. But what he is going through is worse!”

At this point Per starts to wander around in the audience randomly touching faces of visitors with his ice-cold and wet fingers, while smiling at them awkwardly.

“He has been murmuring all day,” the woman goes on while she pulls him back and tries to sit him back into his chair. “He keeps repeating that he is cold. To be honest with you I wanted to cancel the performance tonight. But I was reassured by the fact that he responds to my gestures. When I smile at him, he smiles back. So whenever I talked about cancelling the performance he would protest loudly.” He grunts and she pulls him back because he tries to venture into the audience again to touch faces.

“The reason we came to the United States, is to go to Michigan to meet Robert Ettinger, the father of cryonics. ‘What is Cryonics?’ you ask. It is a practice of freezing people and pets after they are clinically dead, so that one day when science has advanced they will be able to resuscitate them and cure whatever ailments that caused their death, “ Fatos sits Per down in the chair again, trying to get eye contact with him. “We are less interested in Cryonics or the effects that the process have on the identity of the patients. It is rather the visionary qualities and the amazing commitment Robert Ettinger has towards his work that make us want to interview him.”

Per stands up and walks off the stage with an awkward gait.

“Per, Per would you please come back!” she shouts after him “I have to make sure that he does not get up to some mischief.” She grabs her bag and the hat that has fallen off Per’s head and runs after him.