The idea
Draw an alien.
Make it realistic.
Realistic Alienby an unidentified artist
Two instructions. Many different answers.
First in Berlin in 2009. Then tables in Udaipur, Bogotá, Barú, Barcelona, Rishikesh and Tokyo, and in Germany and Indonesia, until 2012.
At the table
A host sits down among children and grown-ups and says the two instructions, twice. Nothing follows. No example on the board, no welcome speech.
Then the host picks up a pen and starts drawing too.
What "realistic" means
Children ask. The host answers only: "Realistic. The way it really looks." Every question gets the two instructions again, or a question back.
For grown-ups who wonder: realistic means the way you really think it looks.
Never graded
No alien is ever graded. Nobody wins. Nobody praises, corrects or ranks, and the grown-ups in the room keep the same straight face.
Grade: —
Then the wall
At the end, every alien hangs whole, at the same height, with the same space and the same label. Then everyone walks the wall.
No two are alike, and each one was drawn to be realistic. Nobody told them. They found out.
Tokyo, 2012 · Indonesia, 2011 · Rishikesh, 2012
