Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A tragicomedy in two acts, a project in three parts

Drawing of “stage” (2007)
(Page 2)

Organizing map of New Orleans 1 (2007)
(Page 14)

Drawing of bicycle for Pozzo (2007)
(Page 28)

Drawing of shopping cart for Lucky (2007)
(Page 40)

Drawing of tree (2007)
(Page 54)

Drawing of disaster tour bus for boy (2007)
(Page 68)

Street sign on St. Claude (2007)
(Page 81)

Street sign in Lower Ninth Ward (2007)
(Page 93)

Street sign in Gentilly (2007)
(Page 107)

Flyer (2007)
(Page 124)

Dancing before the 1st Lower Ninth Ward Performance (2007)
(Page 138)

J. Kyle Manzay and Wendell Pierce in Act I (2007)
(Page 150)

Drawing of entire project as a musical score (2007)
(Page 165)

Images

Paul Chan lives and works in New York. His recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2008); Serpentine Gallery, London (2007); Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2006); UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); and ICA Boston (2005). Group exhibitions include The 2006 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; New Work / New Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Eighth Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France (2005); Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2004). Chan is also well known for his political interventions—in 2002 he broke US sanctions and federal law to visit Baghdad, and in 2004 he garnered police attention for The People’s Guide to the Republican National Convention, a free map distributed throughout New York to help protesters to get in or out of the way of the RNC. Most recently Chan collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative Time to produce a site-specific outdoor presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot in New Orleans.

Artist statement

Waiting for Godot in New Orleans
A tragicomedy in two acts, a project in three parts

by
Samuel Beckett

Estragon
Vladimir
Lucky
Pozzo
a boy
City of New Orleans in 2007

ACT I

Eight months research. Four months teaching and street organizing.
Five free site-specific performances.

ACT II

A country road. A tree.
Evening.