Duration – Variable
Sell Me A Question is a Performance / Live Art work where Parvez Parvez turns into an expert buyer – a collector of questions.
Visitors are invited to bring in any question they wish to sell. Parvez evaluates its worth through a process he has evolved over the last few years using psychoanalytical approach as its basis. While he engages with the seller, the entire audience is taken along into the depth of that question and its underlying presumptions. It is like a jeweller examining a piece of rock to gauge the worth of the diamond hidden within.
This flows into the transactional part – offers and counteroffers and bargaining. Each seller brings something new to the table. The performance charts a new path every time a question is offered and thus remains unpredictable and playful throughout.
The performance flows like a theatre piece except that there is no script and no way to gauge where it will head or end. Ultimately it leads to a much larger question – who owns a question? How does one buy or sell abstract things – like an idea, a thought or a question? And, what value is their right value?
The work utilizes Parvez’s background in psychiatry and his ability to craft and trigger encounters; as he cajoles and teases the audience out of their passive into a more thinking and participatory mode.
Performed at:
Sell Me A Question, DOCK Basel, 2025
Goldrausch #3, Zurich, 2025
