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Pi(ng)Po(ng)

     "A man arrives at a motel and checks into his room. He waits, he sits. He asks: "In a place that is not home, where am I?" A voice answers: "Is it tight? Back here? Is it tight?" The man asks: "In a body that is not mine who am I?" A voice answers: "Get into the dress."

     What an opportunity for the whole family to imagine a night at the Timbers Motel in downtown Eugene. For one night only, the show starts at 7 pm Saturday, Nov. 23 and runs as long as people are willing to look. Because this is an audience-participation art event, you have to walk into, wander through or stop at the door of each room and peek inside. The rooms are easily accessible. This show is free and open to the public. Join the crowd for "Motelhaus #3: If on a winter's night a traveler ..."

    The artists who have created work for this show are interested in exploring ideas and issues such as liminal space, psychogeography, gender, dimensionality, permeability, transciency, security, surveillance, anonymity, sex, power, money, endurance, spectacle, technology and the sonic environment. Now if you're thinking you can't imagine how some of these concepts translate into art, don't worry. You don't have to literally understand the ideas. Just bring an open mind to experience and enjoy the art.

    Liminal space begins at the door (limen means threshold) of the motel room. A common experience of many travelers is that a motel room is a place between home and destination, neither exactly public nor precisely private, but some mysterious, not entirely comfortable place between.

    Pipo Nguyen-duy proposed setting up a ping-pong table in the room, where he would compete against a robot. As an athlete he said he thinks about performance, competition, endurance and spectacle. But he also thinks about gender issues, he wrote. He may have changed his ideas by Saturday night, and the only way to know for sure is to be present for the show.

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