Behold his Radical Buttocks
On August 21, the world’s first official, naked public performance art festival will occur in the streets of Biel, Switzerland, featuring projects from 18 international artists.
Local artist Thomas Zollinger has organised a two-day display of self-imagined transgression, during which he and his fellow artists will “increase beyond gallery walls the presence of the naked body as an artistic medium,” and will “explore the possibilities of the naked body in the urban space.” But sadly, not in the way that people with particular tastes might actually want to pay for. Instead, “nakedness is employed as a sculptural element in dialogue with the architectural environment, ground structures and pedestrian traffic.”
Be still my girlish heart.
Given the lack of pornographic appeal, and with it a lack of public interest, it’s perhaps unsurprising that some funding issues have arisen:
Although Biel’s culture office and other institutions helped fund over half the festival’s cost, the organisers are seeking donations online to cover artists’ lodgings, security measures, and other expenses. Incentives to contribute include options to participate in a nude performance of one’s choosing: for 111.55 CHF (~$127 USD), one may partake in “Naked Audience,” which involves stripping and sitting on a chair on a sidewalk while watching pedestrians; 280 CHF (~$290 USD) earns one an invitation to a “Naked Lunch” during which a series of “creative activities” will unfold.
Oh don’t pretend you’re not tempted.
Mr Zollinger’s earlier forays into Incredibly Daring Nude Performance Art™ can be beheld at length here. Where, for instance, you’ll find a seven-minute piece titled Naked UFO, also staged in Biel, in which members of the public cope quite well with the Incredibly Daring Nude Performance Art™ – a composure that rather deflates the ostentatious claims of transgression and taboo, and the alleged “challenge and confrontation of the naked body.” A handful of people wait around looking slightly puzzled, possibly hoping that something interesting will happen, eventually. Two children look amused before wandering off to be amused by something else. And for the most part passers-by pass on by, their minds somehow unshattered by the Incredibly Daring Nudeness™ of it all.
Hey, Franklin found it.
“self-imagined transgression” – is that code for a furtive wank?
The word wank does some to mind.
As with previous visits to the dreary world of exhibitionism, what strikes me is the implicit insult of the premise. The artists, being so terribly radical and transgressive, at least in their own minds, imagine that we, the lowly public, will be scandalised or “challenged” – that our tiny bourgeois minds will be blown – by the sight of some middle-aged misfits displaying their saggy arses.
he and his fellow artists will “increase beyond gallery walls the presence of the naked body as an artistic medium,”
If their bodies are an artistic medium shouldn’t they have nicer bodies? Asking for a friend.
If their bodies are an artistic medium shouldn’t they have nicer bodies?
Heh. It would help. And that’s the thing. If you subtract any aesthetic, erotic or athletic reason to watch, there isn’t much left to hold the attention. There’s what, incongruity? The desperate hope that someone passing by will swoon or call the police?
The emperor has no clothes.
Has he considered wearing a red rubber bra & snorting cocaine off a call girl’s assets?
Has he considered wearing a red rubber bra & snorting cocaine off a call girl’s assets?
See, that’s entertainment.
Well, at least they’ll be saving a bundle on their clothing expense.
I find it interesting how all these artists think that we’re still stuck culturally in the mindset of an Edwardian gentleman, that somehow the arts establishment is riddled with bourgeois traditionalists who need subverting at every turn. This ignores the fact that the arts establishment has been solidly modernist and anti-traditionalist in this country since about 1935. So this so-called transgressiveness is actually not transgressive at all, but is instead actually quite safe, quite expected, quite (ironically), traditional, and therefore amusingly not radical at all. Contrast this with the experience of traditional traditionalists, like the sculptor Alexander Stoddart, who was called a fascist and persecuted at art college for having the temerity to follow his own Classically figurative sculptural path, and actually be transgressive against current arts establishment thinking.
I find it interesting how all these artists think that we’re still stuck culturally in the mindset of an Edwardian gentleman,
Absolutely. If they want to blow our minds, they really should try a little harder. It’s the 21st century, not the 1950s.
this so-called transgressiveness is actually… quite safe, quite expected, quite (ironically) traditional,
When I hear the words “performance art” what comes to mind (after the words “oh dear”) is unattractive naked people being tedious. It’s a staple of the genre, always has been.
My son likes running about naked.
In his defence, he doesn’t ask for money to do it, and he’s two.
Maybe these artists are just over-tired and need to be put to bed for their afternoon nap.
I find it interesting how all these artists think that we’re still stuck culturally in the mindset of an Edwardian gentleman, that somehow the arts establishment is riddled with bourgeois traditionalists
The reaction they’re hoping for.
The reaction they get.
The reaction they’re hoping for.
The reaction they get.
Well played, sir.
So each early morning and evening, when I am in the midst of my routine wardrobe changes and I am wandering around my bathroom, bedroom, or dashing madly to the laundry room, I carry the yolk of “performance artist”? If I leave the shutters of my large bathroom window open do I qualify for a government grant?
Perhaps that is the secret, people peeping into my left-opened shutters will have the feeling of doing something a little naughty, a little transgressional. Putting folks into the unexpected role of voyeur is controversial. Handing it out on a sidewalk to passers-by like mini hot-dog samplers on a paper plate, is so very common, expected and unmemorable.
For the “Naked Lunch,” is the $290 prix fixe or does one order à la carte?
The last attractive one did not have to get naked. Just saying.
So it isn’t indecent exposure if you get a grant for it?
Why do they never seem to schedule these cultural festivals in areas of town where there are significant populations of Muslims? Kinda racist to think that only European-types have any appreciation for the challenge and confrontation of the naked body. Why should the “employment” of nakedness as a sculptural element in dialogue with the architectural environment, ground structures and pedestrian traffic be solely a privilege of white people? From what I once heard from Obama, a lack of “employment” is a significant factor in the radicalization of Muslim yooths.
Why do they never seem to schedule these cultural festivals in areas of town where there are significant populations of Muslims?
Well, that sort of question and observation actually already got brought up the other day by The original Mr. X . . .
Swedish “Far-Right” Plans Gay Pride Parade Through Muslim Areas; Leftists and Gay Rights Groups Decry the Parade as Racist
Noting, of course, that racism isn’t involved in that event: Being gay isn’t racist or a race, there are gays of all sorts of colors, shapes, politics, and other variations. In turn, those who follow Islam are also not racist—in and of being followers of Islam—or a race, Islam is a faith and the faithful also are all sorts of colors, shapes, politics, and other variations.
I’m thinking of producing another piece of art, my Staffie versus 18 nudists. Bets can be taken on how long he takes to clear the square. Choose your own time of up to 30 seconds.
Will he paint his buttocks blue and hoot like a baboon?
And of course there are always the “what cannot be unseen” men in the Zombietime report who inflated their scrotums at some event in San Francisco.
Geez, more artistic nudity. I’d find it more shocking if they actually practiced good hygiene and dressed well.
I’d find it more shocking if they actually practiced good hygiene and dressed well.
Or if, being artists, they made something pleasing to look at. I’d happily settle for that.
As I’ve said before, I get paid to write software. This means that on any given workday I will typically do something to bring about the existence of a semantically non-trivial entity whose exact conformation has never hitherto been instantiated in the history of the universe. Yet these people are called ‘creative’. As a side note, I can quite easily work from home as well, in which case I can do the above while being buck naked into the bargain. It’s a transgressive two-fer.
As a side note, I can quite easily work from home as well, in which case I can do the above while being buck naked into the bargain. It’s a transgressive two-fer.
No, no, no, no. You have to go out to a local park or shopping mall or something–take the laptop along—and then do the coding while naked . . . better yet, just walk out the door naked, rather than stripping at wherever you go to. That way you get to get to be transgressive . . . .
on any given workday I will typically do something to bring about the existence of a semantically non-trivial entity whose exact conformation has never hitherto been instantiated in the history of the universe.
Adding this to my next performance review.
I invited them to perform in Edmonton Alberta on Jan. 21 2016. It’s usually around -30c. I’ll keep you updated on their response.
A painting or sculpture that looks like something beautiful, rather than a spurt of blood or semen or bloody semen on a canvas, or a “sculpture” made of packing peanuts and a cardboard box. Nah. There’s more talent in the spurt and the cardboard, obviously!
I invited them to perform in Edmonton Alberta on Jan. 21 2016. It’s usually around -30c. I’ll keep you updated on their response.
Perhaps you could entice them by proposing a collaborative effort wherein you get them to hug the Leduc derrick as a statement of the naked body as a sculptural element in dialogue with rural industry as part of a larger dialogue of the loss of humanity in the bleak wilderness of the fracking fields. It would probably heighten the effect if either the Leduc derrick was, or participants were, lightly misted before the hugging commenced.
Pepper spray. ‘Nuff said.
‘Oh yes they call him the streak.. (boogideh boogideh)
The fastest thing on two feet.. (boogideh boogideh)
He’s just as proud as he can be
Of his anatomy
He’s gonna give us a peek..
Don’t look Ethel!’
(Ray Stevens)
Well, Of Course the funding has to get taken care of . . .
Can they add an option to pay them to put their clothes back on?
Same net monetary effect, but no one has to cop an eyefull of balls.
@Captain Nemo
RE: Sculptor Alexander Stoddart
Sincere thanks for exposing me to this artist. I’ve not heard of him before.
Sincere thanks for exposing me to this artist.
My pleasure.
I’ve not heard of him before.
I hadn’t until a couple of years or so ago, and when I did it was only in the context of his having done a frieze for a new art gallery in London, which I’d read about in an issue of Country Life. I’ve seen more of his work since. The Hume statue in Edinburgh is a marvellous piece of work.