Suddenly I no longer feel insecure and frightened; I feel sure of myself. I feel hate.

Grimm is innocent. He did nothing to Valerie. He has probably never done anything to anyone. Sandra was right.

It was all an illusion.

A set-up.

A performance.

Just another of Balder’s sick games.

I go into the kitchen for a glass of water and when I see the gun, the identical twin of the revolver I threw in the canal, it seems to me that my hatred has drawn it there, as if by some strange magnetic force.

All right, I think, picking it up.

If my hunch proves right, I really am going to kill a man tonight.

59

Once I have calmed down a little, I open my laptop and google Balder’s name. Directly underneath his Wikipedia entry I find his homepage and click on it.

The screen goes black. Then a countdown appears.

20 h 58 min 32 s

A quick sum tells me that the countdown will end at 10 p.m. I scroll up and down, then realise that I have to click on the numbers themselves. Words appear.

Curse, it says. And underneath, Performance. And then, † 11.02.2017.

I stare at the screen.

Curse.

Next I google ‘Balder + Curse’ and although I’m not particularly hopeful, I find something immediately: an interview with a German newspaper, less than two weeks old. I quickly scan it and soon find what I’m looking for.

So, tell us a bit about your next project. The only information on your homepage is a countdown that ends on February 11 this year—and the sinister title ‘Curse’.

WB: Curse will be my final performance. My working materials are video, digital space and humans.

Interesting that you class humans as a ‘material’. In the past you have often attracted criticism for your treatment of the participants in your artworks. You’ve even been sued several times for grievous bodily harm and—

WB: And it never came to a trial. Art is free. That tenet, I’m glad to say, still holds true. But it has always been important to me that no one is forced into anything. All the people who take part in my performances do so entirely voluntarily—including those who go on to sue me.

The claimants’ argument was that you manipulated them.

WB: What does that mean, manipulated? What is manipulation? Don’t we all manipulate each other all the time? Where does it begin? Where does it end? Even babies are brilliant manipulators, aren’t they?

If the cultural pages of the newspapers are to be believed, you’re the master of manipulation.

WB: If that’s supposed to be damning, all I can say is: I’m not offended. I’ve always liked manipulating the way people see, breaking popular paradigms.

So what’s the topic of your latest performance?

WB: I don’t want to give too much away. But it’s basically about free will. And death.

Sounds bleak.

WB: Depends how you look at it. Some people see death as something dark and negative. But isn’t it, in fact, the greatest work of art?