An Account of Oneself is a durational performance by Getsay, presented during Berlin Art Week 2026 as part of The Underground Garden Exhibition.

For five hours a day over five consecutive days, Getsay creates a prolonged encounter with the self.

Across twenty-five hours, time becomes the material of the work: a way of returning to what has been ignored.

The past year has been one of the most difficult since Getsay was first diagnosed with depression. They were forced to stop taking the medication that had supported them for over twenty years after discovering it was no longer safe for them. As the search for an effective treatment continues, everyday existence has become an effort in itself. They have continued working, making, and caring for other people while often being unable to care for themself. Here, the hours are set aside for what getting through each day leaves little room to acknowledge. What has been postponed is given a place in the present: attending to oneself without first needing to be well.

Judith Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself offers a way to consider this encounter without demanding a complete explanation of who one has become. Through this lens, the performance asks whether facing oneself can also mean relinquishing the demand to make sense of everything, whether an honest account might leave room for what cannot yet be said.

These twenty-five hours cannot return the year, nor are they offered as a way out of depression. They offer time within which to meet what has been lived. Between the wish to make things right and the uncertainty of what is possible, Getsay attempts to remain with the hurt, with the unanswered, and with themself.