N NOWACEK

Not From Here (2012) was a performance about space and place at different scales of time. is a performance of urban and individual identity via the universal and basic needs of the tourist: where to go and how to get there. Rooted in a series of exchanges—between tourist and local, production and consumption, and between assumption and imagination—the performance turned conversation into action. Starting at Square One, local shoppers were asked for directions to purchase important items. Once suggestions have been gathered, the performance will take to the streets, to experience Mississauga, step by step, at 5K an hour. The performance took place during the day on Saturday, Sept. 29 and Sunday Sept. 30.

 

To learn about Mississauga, Ontario, the artist, a pedestrian inhabitant of New York City, set out to procure all of the original items used to purchase its land from the Mississauga Nation: Felt hats, silver vessels, wool blankets, lace, and wine. The artist began at Square One, the so-named central retail shopping mall that shares a parking lot with Mississauga City Hall. Finding none of the objects at Square One, the artist took advice from the public about where she might procure the items. The artist, who did not own or drive a car, set out, on foot, from Square One, to walk through Mississauga searching for the goods.

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After two days of walking, the artist, exhausted from over 30 miles of walking, to procure as many of the original items used to tempt the Mississaugas out of their land in hopes of buying the land back for them, instead, abandoned the items on the steps of Mississauga City Hall.

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Instead, the artist wrote an open letter to the leaders of Mississauga—a critique of the city's placelessness—that summarized her experiences. The letter was never sent.

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