Romi Horn, Things That Happen Again: For Two Rooms, 1986.
C: As viewers, we'll literally act out what conceptually we comprehend as the subject of the work...
Horn: Yes. Narrative has no interest for me except in terms of how an experience unfolds for the viewer. That is the narrative of the experience of the work itself. To take another example: in Piece for Two Rooms you go into a space and see a simple disk. It doesn't look like much: it isn't, until you walk in and see that it is a three-dimensional cone-shaped object which is familiar but has certain subtle format qualities which make it different, which take away from it being familiar. It becomes memorable. Then you go into the next room and enact exactly the same experience, but of course it's unexpected and it's so many minutes later; it's a slightly younger experience in your life. Whereas when you walked into the first room, you had the experience of something unique, you can't have that a second time. That's it. It's a one-shot deal: it's not a reversible thing. When the viewer is going through this experience, that becomes the narrative: it's literally a piece of your life and it's the narrative of the work. (...) Knowledge is a funny thing: it often precludes experience.
Romi Horn
Phaidon Press Limited
2000
