Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary presents Come early to avoid disappointment, a lecture/performance by Andreas Schlaegel with special guests Gelitin in the context of the exhibition Figura cuncta videntis (the All-Seeing Eye) / Homage to Christoph Schlingensief.

This invitation – to come early, to avoid the disappointment of seeing all seats already taken – is issued here by Berlin based author and artist Andreas Schlaegel. It is also his headline for a performative lecture, that attempts, in a speculative balancing act, to connect the postmodernist artist-subject with the emancipated viewer. With a particular interest in the way power plays and works, and in the effects of the continuous repetition of the never changing, he also reflects on the sobering dilemma of authenticity and the inexhaustible magnetism of popular moulds.

Schlaegel’s skillful and taxonomic impersonation of the King – fully adorned in a an Elvis-style white glitter suit - is a balancing act between jester, coax, and artistic performance and is challenged by the interventions of Vienna’s artist collective Gelatin. The resulting dialogic action verges on the absurd, the excessive overdetermination of performative acts colliding in the compressed space of an improvised stage.