i love watching people. i love how we move through space, how we encounter each other and the world around us. i really think we are beautiful beings. (not perfect, mind you….) and tonight flutura and besnik were beautiful. not only because they were dressed in beautiful clothes, she in a long sleeveless red dress, red gloves, he in a black suit, white gloves; but because they gave themselves to be seen.

one thing about performance (or life really) is that if you look at one thing, you are not looking at another thing. and tonight i chose to look at flutura and besnik and i chose not to look at the slide show of drawings on the screen. i didn’t even try to be diplomatic about it because flutura and besnik were holding each other.

standing still in each other’s arms. her one hand on his shoulder, his one hand at the small of her back. the other hand placed inside a long tube, his black, hers red, that ran the length of the gallery and ended in what might have been ceramic hands holding a pen before the screen showing the slide show of drawings.

the couple did not move. or so it seemed at first. but over time they altered the direction of their gaze, turning their heads to look in different directions.

it is funny what goes through your mind when you watch performance. or…as i don’t really know what goes through your mind, maybe i should say its funny what goes through my mind when i watch performance. like i noticed that besnik has nice brown eyes, and that his shoes were leather. and that i liked looking at his face. i noticed that flutura has a strong looking back and that she was wearing high heels that i could kinda make out through her dress. i thought, « wow, i am glad i am not standing for that long wearing high heels » (but actually i never wear high heels so my thought was kinda irrelevant, but i thought it all the same.) and then i thought it was really nice that this couple could work together, and i wondered how long my partner and i would last if we tried to work together. then i thought about family (because as martin pointed out to me there were two words on the envelopes that he couldn’t figure out, that when telling me he couldn’t figure them out realized they were names.)

so yes…an artist couple holding on to each other.

and the nicest thing for me, was to observe as the performance progressed, flutura and besnik came ever closer together. his hand at the small of her back pulling her in to him ever so slightly.

it was, after all, a tango.

flutura and besnik haxhallari: http:// www. sitec.fr/users/akenatondocks