Waiting Room for One

Chiara Montanari performed the work for the first time in 2023, alone in a room with one chair and one door. For six hours she waited to be called. Nobody ever calls her name.

The room is built to the size of a real waiting room in a hospital in Bologna, with the same chair, the same clock and the same strip light. Visitors watch through a small window in the door.

The museum performs it twice a year, with a different performer each time. Between performances, a single take film of the first one plays in the gallery, all six hours of it.

Most people watch for a few minutes. A few stay for the whole thing, and some of them come back the next day.