In 2000 Gelitin achieved an unlikely, preposterous feat by removing a window from the 91st floor of the World Trade Center, extending a self-made wooden balcony out the window, and standing upon it for ten minutes at a time. What would have been impossible in the post-9/11 era, the performance was elevated to the state of myth at the time for its blatant juvenile recklessness and unfeasibility. While defying all norms and putting out their rowdy, carefree sensibility on full display, Gelitin simply wanted to experience the joy and fear and all of the emotions that arise from “being totally dependent on a structure and atmosphere [they] have created [themselves].”
Quote is from “The B-Thing” by Carlo McCormick, Bookforum, Winter 2001.