In this,  the second of two signature events, guest director Laurie Anderson began with the notion that watching things go wrong can be a lot of fun. 

Take, for instance, her idea she could do a stand-up routine.

Turns out the jokes are pretty funny: one is about a couple who wait for their children to die before they divorce, and the other is that it’s a good thing for church architecture that Jesus was killed in the New Testament and not the Old, a cross being a better template for a building than a pile of stones.

Stand-up’s loss has been NASA’s gain – think Popes in space –though when the US Senate rumbled they were paying for an artist in residence as well as a multi billion dollar space programme, they pulled the plug.

Anderson simply moved her residency back to the world and Slideshow was a catalogue of curated works and stories from Guantanamo to a remote Amish outpost in heavy weather.

From each she draws her trademark bittersweet and unsettling observations, black humour and goofy irony.

Nearly two hours with no interval is a long time to tell stories. Next time Plan B.