Public Performance for MOCA London at ‘The Big Lunch’, Bellenden Road, Peckham, London, June 5
During the exhibition of SHOCK: 'It...all...happened...so...quickly' at MOCA London, we staged the Bellenden Road Fete Worse than Death to coincide with the Big Lunch street party on Sunday the 5th June, 2011. This public spectacle utilized the format of a village fete to explore the art of casualty simulation and consisted of a disaster tour where the Casualties Union (London branch) staged a series of incidents in different shops along Bellenden Road visualising ‘worst-case’ scenarios that could happen when shopping on the street. Additionally visitors to the street party learnt make-up and acting techniques used to ‘authentically’ portray casualty victims and then took part in fete style competitions with categories such as sculpting the most authentic wound or pulling the most authentic expression of pain. CU members also offered free injury face painting to passers by.
As well as addressing the theatrical nature of rescue training exercises and consequent blurring between fiction and reality, the event explored the wider social implications of 'playing dead’ and also examines spectatorship, our morbid fascination with such events for the purposes of entertainment.
