Domain of Things Domain of Things

We refer to communities, practices or events as ‘underground’ when a general public cannot access or see them. Yet the term ‘underground’ has other connotations: humans retreat underground during war or disaster, for instance, and they may live underground in order to remain safe. The ‘underground’, then, is a notion closely allied to ideas of survival and permanence on the one hand, as well as being a site where individuals can move, express themselves and behave freely on the other.

Pedro Gómez-Egaña’s work examines these dual notions of ‘underground’ space as a site for containment and freedom alike. In his performance piece and installation Domain of Things, he interprets underground space as a site of refuge, yet also pleasure. Individuals lie on a structure incorporating rails and wheels. Above them is a construction made of flooring segments. Each of these segments represents a particular domestic space: a dining room, a bedroom and a bathroom, furnished with different technological or media objects, such as a newspaper, a radio, a screen. Domestic space resembles a machine. As the performers activate the machinery underneath the structure, the ‘home’ above moves too – becoming fractured, disintegrating and re-forming itself.

Gómez-Egaña sees technology as a force aiding the individualism of expression on the one hand, and as a medium manifesting a desire for connection on the other. The performers in Domain of Things conjure a number of earthly delights: alcohol and particular smells. The work calls attention to the human will to experience pleasure amid dire conditions, at a time when society seems torn between a desire for individual liberty and communal connection, as well as establishing a dialogue between over-ground and underground sites and activities – visible and invisible life.