Peeling and cutting the onion produces tears. In the performance “Cry Baby – How To Win Hearts And Influence People”, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research takes the child’s crying as a potentially resistive act that may cause a hierarchy to totter. The onion thus becomes a catalyst for an expression of emotion that is otherwise taboo in public.
The Bureau of Melodramatic Research was founded in 2009 by Irina Gheorghe and Alina Popa in Bucharest, Romania. The Bureau of Melodramatic Research conducts research into the historical and social significance and function of melodrama. The two artists are in Zurich for the opening of the exhibition “Just Another Brick in the Wall: Models for Art Production in Romania”, curated by Olga Stefan at Galerie Barbara Seiler. On this occasion, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research will be a guest at message salon for one evening and will be showing a performance in the shop window at Perla-Mode.