Liliane Lijn - Power Game

First staged in 1974, Power Game is both a game and a live unrehearsed performance that uses gambling to investigate the politics of identity and power. Played as an altered game of Chemin de Fer using a pack of word cards Lijn invented, Power Game is principally concerned with the power of words and how people interpret meaning, depending on their interests and preconceptions.
Invited players and members of the public who join the table have to demonstrate their wit, originality, or economic/political/cultural influence to secure the votes that win the hand. Each live performance is video-taped from beginning to end and simultaneously broadcast live on screens both in the casino and in the café bar, intercut with video from past performances.
Lijn's work makes extensive use of new technologies and a broad range of media to explore properties of language, light and motion and has drawn influence from science, oriental and western philosophies and mythology.