NIKA’S GAME OF CHANCE
In Seoul and Tokyo I did two performances based on the rules of a game of chance LOTTO.
Performance: in Seoul (on 15 September) and in Tokyo (on 7 October) twenty participants drew lots. Each participant got a set of game rules and one of twenty copies of the lottery ticket I had used to try my luck in Germany*. All the participants of Nika’s Game of Chance had the same winning chances, since I had played the exact same numbers twenty times. In the performance I drew out six numbers by shaking and rotating the 49 numbered balls in the Plexiglas sphere. The main prize for getting all six numbers right was an original lottery ticket and a kiss from me. However, just as it had been for me, the participants of Nika’s game of Chance had no luck either.
*In the summer of 1999 I played the lottery twenty times to improve my miserable financial situation. This game of chance cost me a lot of money and did not bring any returns. My main reason for this naive attempt to improve my financial status was the wish to join my academy colleagues on a study trip to Korea and Japan. Despite my financial problems I still managed to get to Asia.
1997
Performance.
49 numbered table tennis balls, a Plexiglas sphere, a fan, 20 copies of a lottery ticket, a female assistant.
Academy Exchange, School of Art and Design, Seoul, Korea; Tokyo Geijutsu, Tokyo, Japan.
