Overview

The performance Temporary Office invites audiences into a thought-provoking, participatory exploration of women’s labour, collective identity, and social roles. Set within the fictional framework of the "Asian Housekeeping and Care Work Association," this performance critiques the ongoing struggles of women’s labour and care work through a faux documentary-style, immersive experience. The project is a collaboration between Hye-ryung Lee and the Qizlar Collective, represented by Malika Zayniddinova.

The performance encourages active engagement from the audience, transforming them into members of the association as they participate in tasks that reflect the everyday lives of Central Asian women. They notice to come across repetitive movements through mundane yet meaningful acts questioning societal prejudices where the invisible reality of women's labor that often goes unnoticed. Through these mundane yet meaningful acts, the performance challenges societal prejudices against women’s labour and invites reflection on the hidden realities of domestic work. Temporary Office provides a critical yet playful lens on the ways women are both liberated and constrained by societal expectations, questioning whether the supposed progress in gender roles is as transformative as we believe.

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Concept & Artistic Direction

The performance begins with a secretive invitation to the "Asian Housekeeping and Care Work Association," an imagined international organisation previously introduced by Hye-ryung Lee in her body of work. For this project, the association’s temporary office is established in the heart of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This space functions as a contemporary version of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, where women, often without a space to call their own, find solidarity, support, and time to themselves within the shared office.

The audience plays an integral role in the performance, participating in scripted tasks guided by sounds, performers, and interactive cues. They perform seemingly ordinary chores—cleaning, preparing food, taking care of children—highlighting the undervalued yet essential roles women continue to occupy in society. In this constructed space, members of the audience reflect on the emotional and physical exhaustion of these duties. This act of defiance transforms into a radical statement: when women stop, the world stops.

This participatory performance is not merely observational; it engages the audience in a deeper inquiry into the nature of labour, art, and collective resistance. The participants bring their own interpretations to the performance, transforming what seems mundane into a socially and politically charged dialogue.