Champion’s Dinner
I have a twin sister, and from an early age I learned what it means to experience the world together with someone else. When she cried, I cried. When she laughed, I laughed. Maybe that is why collective happiness has never felt unfamiliar to me; it is my original state of being.
I believe that joy is amplified when it is shared, and perhaps that is why I love applause, confetti, trophies, acceptance speeches, and cheering crowds. In recent years, I have spent countless hours watching videos of people winning. It can be anything from sports and talent shows to reality TV. Someone breaks a record, someone wins an award, someone gets accepted into their dream education. I watch the celebration, the tears, the embraces, and feel a warmth in my body. I feel infinite, as if I can achieve anything I desire in the universe, as though their happiness were my own.
In the work Champion’s Dinner, I wanted to explore the relationship between happiness, winning, the collective and to consider a win something that circulates, reproduces and is shared rather than individually owned. Through a staged dinner in which nine participants perform self-written victory speeches, I wanted to explore what a win means to them, both as individuals and as a group. During the dinner the room filled with laughter, applause, and nervous glances. Smiles were exchanged, and a broader understanding of what a win can be began to emerge.
When joy exceeds the boundaries of the individual it can transform into a shared, almost contagious state. In a time shaped by competition, identifying with someone else’s happiness becomes complex. Can collective happiness emerge through victory, and what happens if we all become winners?