READERS who can get across to Canberra Contemporary Art Space at Gorman House at noon today will witness a performance art event.

American artist Robert Ladislas Derr will perform “Chance,” as he has done in cities around the world.

Derr, an associate professor of art at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, dresses in a mirrored suit, and wears four video cameras that capture the scenes from his front, back and sides, as he proceeds on a walk.

Exchanging his pedestrian status for the role of the spectacle, as he becomes art, he chooses mirrors “for the dichotomy of being real and illusionary in the streetscape”.

Derr asks viewers to roll a die to determine his cartography through the city streets. This ongoing ‘psychogeographical’ walk performance project that he began in late 2005 relies on the chance of the die to determine if he proceeds forward, goes right, left, back, spins or stands in place.

When ‘spin’ or ‘stand in place’ are the command, Derr completes each for one minute. The directional commands take him to the next ‘intersection’, as he continues the walk for approximately 45 minutes – the average amount of time that it takes to complete all thirty commands.

After completing the walk with the video cameras, Derr will returns to each intersection encountered and photographs the front, back, and side views, creating a photograph cartography.

Performances of “Chance” have taken place in Atlanta, Georgia for Flux Projects and “Playing the City”, an exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, curated by Matthias Ulrich.

 ‘Chance’, by Robert Ladislas Derr at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House Arts Centte,  noon, today, all welcome.