TOMISLAV GOTOVAC [ G-012A ]
Group Fun
-- 1969

In The Open

Set a day in the week, Friday. Meet in the passage by the Dom Sindikata. You know the place where there are beer crates and the old lorry. Meet under the window with iron bars through which you can see the central heating boiler (probably for the KOZARA cinema). Don't do any thinking yet. Walk down passage, across Terazije, passing by the Albanija, to Zeleni Venac and then walk past the market and down to the railway station. It is probably five o'clock in the afternoon. In the kiosk to the right of the entrance buy the latest issue of Zik. Open it at the Horoscope. Now, how many of you are there? Alright. When was the third from the left born? Right. He's a Virgo. What does it say? It's alright, you can read it out loud. The important thing is the letter V in Virgo. Now go to the information desk and ask if there is a village whose name begins with V within a 49 kilometers radius (the person who is a Virgo was born in'49), what the best connection is and when the train leaves. Buy the tickets. You have one hour and thirty five minutes before the train is due to leave. Having quickly leafed through Zik, throw it away in case it should influence the train of your thoughts, for it is about now that you begin thinking. Buy some sandwiches and go to the station lavatory, collectively. Stand in the middle, to protect them from any possibility of being abused by the clientele of the public lavatory. You should arrange your-selves in such a way as to hinder people from entering and leaving as much as possible. Take out your sandwiches and slowly eat them. Should the organs of the municipal police force have serious complaints, you should disperse and meet again at the same place a little later. Do this politely and carefully for to be taken to the police station and perhaps detained in an appropriate establishment (prison, madhouse) would not suit you at this moment in time: it would spoil your plans. When you get thrown out of the lavatory once and for all, change your tactics. You have already been noticed as a group, you can no longer act or think-function as a group. Fix a meeting place: a spot on the platform where your train is coming in. Then disperse going to different platforms, waiting rooms, buffets and in front of the kiosk, memorize a detailed description of one of your colleagues and start asking if anyone has seen him, giving any story you like. In doing so the most important thing is that you commit to memory the faces, behaviors, replies and dress of the people you ask. If during the course of all this you come across a particularly interesting man (it is strictly prohibited to question policemen for the above mentioned reasons) and if he gets into deeper conversation with you, asking why you are searching for such and such a person, the first thing you must do is find out whether he is an agent, whether government or private. If he is a government agent (he of course will not proof of his identity, but will ask you for your identity card), get rid of him as politely as possible (violence is out). If you establish that he is a private agent (working for himself, they do exist) the use of force of the first degree is allowed. Remember it is not the quality but the quantity of the meetings that counts. When you get into the carriage take up two compartments although you could all fit into one. Separate out into two compartments, one at each end of the carriage, and if possible near the lavatory. You should do all this so that her passengers who are not aware of your intentions might hear what you say to each other, passengers sitting in the other seats or passing by to get to the lavatory. During the course of the journey you should leave your compartment as often as possible in order to keep the others in your group informed in great detail of all that you have seen at the station and in order to create a rush in the corridor, getting in the way of those already there (because they have no room to sit down, to stretch their legs, or to exchange a flirtatious word or two). It is also necessary to peek very carefully (if the light is not on, switch it on), into the other compartments looking long and deep into the eyes of your fellow passengers. At every station ask what it is called (although you can clearly see the name written up on the station building), whether there is a water tap nearby and how long the train will be waiting. Let us return to conversations: it is your duty to remember as exactly as possible the appearance of our interviews at Belgrade Railway Station. When you give detailed description of a person, try through association or introspection to place them in a film you have watched landscape that film reminds you of and what colors you can see in that landscape. Would you like your boy or girl friend to wear clothes in that color? What do you love or hate about the way your sweetheart is or about what he or she wears? What would you most like to give to this beloved person? Think of the film or films in which you have seen this object. Where and why in that film did man a violence unto his follow man? If there was a murder, were you sorry for the victim? Was there a lot of blood? Would you be able to kill, and why? From time to time it will be necessary to go the lavatory, not in order to relieve yourself but to have a cigarette, or, if you don't smoke, to read one or two of the notices or instructions pasted on the lavatory wall. Get off the train and watch it going off into the distance. Bend your ear down to the railway tracks and don't get up until the sound of the train is completely lost (of course, some people will hear the sound of the train for longer than others). Ask about getting back, and if the village is a long way from the station, ask what the easiest and quickest way of getting there is. Let us assume you have found the village. Let us assume it is night, a clear night. Having ascertained how big the village is how it is located in the countryside, pick a good, fairly large meadow. Start running, slow at first then quicker and quicker. Run for as long as you can, until you have a coppery taste in your mouth, until you feel your lungs are going to burst from coughing (if you are a smoker), keep running until you collapse from exhaustion. When you can no longer run, get together with the others. Each of you tell a love story - in great detail, in word paintings. Try to give a spatial rendering of how you imagine the story was played out. Find a fairly large country house and ask the owner if you can come in. He will surely have some very good alcoholic beverage to offer. Make yourself comfortable and stop thinking. Wake up early in the morning, pay your debts and say goodbye to the master of the house. Go out into the countryside: the sun is very low on the horizon and you don't feel well. Tell each other of your morning thoughts or the dreams you had previous night. It is all the same. Pick up the paper and felt-tips pens you have already prepared and try to sketch the countryside. Try to think of those nearest and dearest to you: what are they doing at this very minute. Think of the atmosphere of a film you have watched. Gather round in a circle and taking it in turns utter the word that first come to mind until your mouth becomes dry. Go to a house and ask where you can get some food. Naturally they give you some, they feed you. Go to the station in a round about way and peek into the country courtyards along the way, greeting the peasants. Wait for the train. Get into the last carriage and remain in the corridor. Watch the countryside. Finally, each makes his own way home.


Group Fun Inside

You have picked a largish room in a comfortable flat (belonging to one of your to a good friend). The room must be furnished with modern furniture. It must not have a light-fitment and especially not in the middle of the ceiling, but one or at most two standard lamps with light green lampshades and one or two wall-lights. The green walls must be covered in white, pale beige or pale green wallpaper with barely visible stripes on it. There must no more than two pictures on the wall, life-size reproductions of paintings by Klee or Boticelli, say, hung very low, framed in natural wood and without any glass. The floor should be completely covered by a pale brown carpet, the pile of which should be no thicker than 2-3 centimeters. There should be green linen roller blinds on the windows (the window should extend across the whole width of the room and should be hung with brown curtains of a soft, opaque material). There should be no more than two large, low, comfortable yellow armchairs and half a dozen largish brightly colored cushions in various shapes for sitting or lying on, on the floor. There must be a desk and chair somewhere out of the way in a corner. The cupboard is built into the wall, as is the bar, so that one barely notices them. Taking up the most space is a huge, low, yellow couch, which can be pulled out into a comfortable double bed, (on which to sleep, rest, or amuse oneself). On the wall above the couch, and that means very low, there is a shelf containing books, a gramophone and records, a tape recorder, statuettes, dolls, a telephone and other things (perhaps a small television set). There may be a few other things in the room like a pile of illustrated magazines, an ornamental plant, etc. The door to the bathroom goes off to the left. You now have to find a man and a woman neither too old nor too young willing and able to strip naked before you and to make love for the purpose of research. It is assumed, although it is not of any essential significance, that you have all at some time slept and had sexual contact with another person or several persons, in the darkness, semi-darkness or in broad daylight, dresses, half-naked, or completely naked, on the floor, in water, or in bed. The possibility is not excluded of your having watched the whole procedure in doing so, if you had the desire or the time, if you were not too absorbed by your partner, male or female or both, or in spite of all this. Coordinate the date of your meeting in the flat with the menstrual cycles of the women members of the group, so that menstruation does not occur during those days. It is best for you to meet at about 10 o'clock in the morning. It is assumed that you will have slept long and well, that you did not have sex during the night, that you have bathed and changed your underwear, had a good and plentiful breakfast, used deodorant on your armpits and shaved everything you feel you need to shave. It is assumed that you are in a good mood, that you are not worried by anal needs, (you do not have indigestion) and that you do not have a headache. You enter the flat one by one. The atmosphere is informal, you make yourself comfortable, help yourself to a drink, just to get into the general mood. You play the tape recorder quietly (you have beat, soul and jazz music on tape), you converse, you wait for everyone to arrive: until about 11 o'clock ( in the morning, of course) which is the time the man and woman are due to arrive. You accept them as members of the group: you talk to them, offer them drinks. You find out how old they actually are, where they were born, what they do, what kind of music they like, and so on. The atmosphere is still informal in every way: you talk about anything that comes to mind, you're together, the time passes by. You pull down the (green) linen roller blinds, pull the brown opaque curtains and light the standard lamps with the green lampshades. When you have got the feeling that you've been in the room for ages, when you lose the sense of time (but not also of space), and your pair (it is assumed that you desire each other), although aware of your presence, stop taking any notice of you, and you start singling them out: watching them. You slowly turn the couch into a bed, cover it with white sheet. You take up positions around the room, as the fancy takes you and where you find room (but not in the bath), to sit comfortably and where you have a good view of the bed. The man and woman are on the bed (as agreed) fully dresses. They cress each other, kiss, their (Indian) love play is long drawn out, they slowly undress each other. This lasts quite a long time, you occasionally drink alcoholic beverages (within limits, making sure you do not become inebriated), the music plays softly. You change your viewing position, you donāt have to be seated: you can stand too, but it is strictly forbidden to touch any of the other members of the group or show the mood you're in, so: no audio - visual commentaries. Your attention is directed to the activities in the bed, but from time to time you must take a look at the faces of the other (this is compulsory). You must assume a certain distance in regard to the activities in the bed (if you can) and try to concentrate on your own inner rhythm. The man and woman are now completely undressed and continue their love play: they kiss each other all over their bodies. Turn off the lights in the room, leaving only the wall light above the bed on (having earlier placed a spotlight in it). Penetration gradually occurs. You may look wherever you wish at that moment. It matters not at all whether you enjoy it or feel revulsion - the important thing is that you should be present during the act. Orgasm is reached, presumably mutual orgasm (both the man and woman). They remain in each others arms for a short time, then part and rest, perhaps lighting a cigarette. Switch on the other lights, light cigarettes too (if you smoke), take some alcoholic beverage with ice and sit back comfortably in your places. The couple you have been watching pull the sheet around them and go off to the bathroom to bathe. You air the room, go into the kitchen and start collectively preparing lunch, using the things you have bought specially for this occasion. While preparing lunch try to remember the most disturbing accident you have ever seen or experienced, or a dead man you have seen, and everything in connection with this. Relate what you remember to the others (what the corpse looked like, why he died, and so on). Prepare the food, call the man and woman (who have in the meantime put on bath-robes) and is down to eat. Then wash the dishes, tidy the kitchen, put on some coffee, chat informally and return to the room. Pull the curtains and turn on the lights. You are drinking coffee and resting after lunch. The man and woman lie naked on the bed resting. After a while they begin their love play again. Prepare the tape-recorder for taping, turn off all the lights (so that it is pitch dark) and sit around the bed. Do not converse, do not light up cigarettes, just concentrate on the sounds coming from the bed. Follow the sounds of the breathing. After the orgasm (which you recognize by its characteristic sounds) turn on the light, switch off the tape-recorder and play a music tape. Have a drink and while the couple goes off to bath, take some tempera paints and sheets of white paper, and try to draw some abstract compositions. The freshly bathed man and woman come out of the bathroom (their skin is still damp) and lie down on the bed. You put down your paper and go up to them with brushes and paints. You start drawing whatever comes to mind over their bodies (little flowers, psychedelic patterns). When you have covered their whole bodies take a camera loaded with a COLOUR - REVERSAL film and take pictures of them either individually or together, getting them to take up various poses, on or off the bed. Shoot off three films like this (Leica format, go off into the bathroom and develop them. Make slides, take a semi-automatic slide projector, black out the room and show the shots you have taken, discussing them as you go. Place the man and woman by the wall and project the slides onto them, while they move about, kiss, bend over. The man and woman go off to wash the paint, you air the room, rest, chat, turn up the tape-recorder. When the couple returns, wrapped in bath-robes, pick up the telephone directory and start ringing up your acquaintances or complete strangers, ask them abut anything at all, joke with them, mess about. You must by no means be vulgar. When you have had enough ask the man and woman to make love again. Take the camera again, this time loaded with black and white reversal film and take pictures of the love-making from the most unlikely angles. Take picture of those watching and of anything you want, even the titles of the books on the shelf, the telephone or the ornamental plants in pots, if you like. When the man and woman stop making love and go off into the bathroom to wash, you take pictures of them there too. Thank them for their trouble and see them to the front door. Develop the films, make slides, air the room, prepare supper. When you have had supper, make your-selves comfortable, prepare the slide projector, put the tape of the love-making sound onto the tape-recorder and project the photographs. When you have had enough, and it will surely be very late now, call a taxi (having first tidied up the flat) and ask to be taken out the suburbs somewhere, to Dedinje for instance. Wonder about the streets a while theneach of you make for home.


Belgrade, December 1969 © Tomislav Gotovac |

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