Premier Performance Encounters. Nice ’82. M.J.C. Gorbella. Many performance artists invited from June 14 to 20, 1982. “Patio” space in the MJC, chosen outside of the theater.

Preparation:

Place imitating the “natural” exterior, a secluded enclave cut off from the public: the patio, 8 x 8 m square. Concrete surrounding architecture, trees (eucalyptus...), and dirt floor. Temporary installation with just a large, transparent sheet of plastic laid on the ground, rising up here and there toward the vegetation. Big red roses lying on the ground, forming a rectangle about 80 cm x 1.8 m. Some gilded balsa sticks, concealed.

Action:

Night falling, early evening. Fixedness of a silent action that starts with the image of a woman lying on her back, on a “bed of roses.” The spectators, are gathered around the patio, look down on her from above. She is wearing a gold dress and gold/cream kitten heels. She remains inert for a long moment. Then she gets up slowly. Roses cling for a moment to her bare shoulders and dress, then fall. The spectators move just a bit. The woman gets up slowly and moves towards some branches. She returns with gilded sticks.  (A “Yi king” an infinite transformation, for a permanent movement in time.) Squatting on her heels, she slowly places sticks on the ground. They soon form letters. Then three short sentences appear: “I LOVED YOU,“ “I LOVE YOU,” “I WILL LOVE YOU”...she leaves the text as is, disappears into the vegetation, and does not return. End.

Critique:

Fairy tale image. Body below. Dominant gaze. Slowly scratching the surface of Sleeping Beauty. Mythology and beauty: an idol invited in for a new fall. Rose. Thorn. Pleasure and pain. Symbol of love. Gift of lovers. Sexual roles. Tribute to ladies. Blood and skin. The red of the origin becomes an adornment. The work becomes increasingly refined. Here the principal action, the thorns in the skin, remains invisible. Time is at work on the bodies. The passivity may seem outrageous to some, vapid to others. A victim sleeps in each of us? Adaptation of the sleeping/dead “Shrine.” Question of “woman” tossed out... with a permanent boomerang effect.

Reaction:

A certain Wim, artist and/or organizer of performances in Rotterdam, at the Lantaren theatre, reacts aggressively. This image apparently “disturbed” him. He accuses me of “feminism.” He sarcastically suggests that I make other images like this one. For example, showing myself naked in a bathtub filled with milk. He automatically excludes me from his invitations to any potential performance festival...