Alicia Framis

Secret Strike Rabobank 09:17, Color, Stereo, NL, 2004

Just an ordinary weekday at the Rabobank head office. Employees are performing their usual tasks. The camera takes a tour through the building, starting in the basement and then moving upwards, floor by floor. While the filming takes place, all ongoing activities – insofar as there were any – come to a halt and freeze. Everyone is paralysed, from the seven directors of the bank, up to the cleaning ladies, the security personnel, and dozens of employees having lunch in the canteen. What remains is a secret choreography of bodies that have come to a standstill, seemingly pointlessly. Framis has been wondering what would happen if we stop doing the things we always do, day in day out, hour after hour. In contrast to a real strike, in which tools are downed consciously, as a means to another end, Framis’ Secret Strike performances are about the confrontation with ourselves.