Abramovic / Ulay, Kaiserschnitt (Caesarean), 1978, video, 6’58” Marina Abramovic and Ulay are performance artists who lived and collaborated together for two decades beginning in the 70s. Non-rehearsed, open-ended and extreme, their performances always went to the borders of their (and sometimes the audience’s) possibilities. The triangular construction “Kaiserschnitt” is a metaphor for the relationship between the two artists and their audience. A horse stands in the centre of a large space, tied to a rope. Ulay and Abramovic are connected to the horse by means of the rope which runs through two rings fastened to opposite walls. Ulay and Abramovic both have one arm through the loop in the rope, while with the other arm they hold on to each other, so that the triangle is complete. The consequence of this construction is that every time the horse moves, Ulay and Abramovic can feel it. They are unable to relax under the tension of the rope and they constantly try to offer some resistance to the rope, symbolic of the tensions and struggles one encounters in space. Joseph Beuys, I Like America and America likes me, 1974, video, 37’ German artist Joseph Beuys is famous for his ritualistic public performances. In 1974 he had his first journey to America, but instead of visiting, he had himself picked up at the airport, wrapped in felt, driven to his gallery, and there caged together with a coyote for four days. The coyote is seen by many as a dangerous animal, but it is also a holy one for the Native Americans. In addition to the two creatures, Beuys had a copper rod and natural felt in the space, both signature materials for the artist, and a stack of The Wall Street Journal was delivered to the gallery every day. Throughout the performance, although there was visible tension, the coyote never threated or harmed Beuys. Monica Bonvinci, No Erection Without Castration, 2006, Untitled (Chain Swing), 2006 Italian artist Monica Bonvinci’s works frequently deconstruct the male-dominated ideals of modern architecture. With her large room installations that reminiscence craftworkshops, S&M parlours and children’s playgrounds she creates unusual environments that are beautiful, tempting and scary at the same time. Her pointed graffiti-like comments are not limited to architecture but also use the discipline as a platform to critique everyday gender politics. Duan Jian Yu, Artistic Chicken, 2003 Often in her paintings Duan Jian Yu presents the audience with uncomfortable scenarios in which farm animals find their way into everyday situations. The chicken motif is now found again in her new series of photographic works as they act as silent bystanders in a menage a trois scene. Her works, mixing vulgarity and absurdity, act as a guide to everyday living where boundaries seem to have lost their place in contemporary Chinese society as standards and attitudes are redefined on a day-to-day basis. Her images exist in a unique time and space. In her depiction of the Wrongness”, she explores possibilities between appropriation and individual imagination. Gutierrez + Portefaix, WHOSE VALUES?, 2007 “WHOSE VALUES?” questions the recent trend in real estate ad campaigns as developers engage in a game of attract and distract with the public, using beauty queens, models and imperial icons to sell luxury apartments. Taking this strategy, Gutierrez + Portefaix push it further by juxtaposing a pornographic image with a word searching game. The viewers are confronted with a maze of letters and keywords revealing the true picture underneath the game of seduction that developers play for the sake of marketing space. Ho Siu Kee, Gravity Hoop, 1997 Drawing from the ancient Chinese myth of creation and the western idea of the golden proportion, Ho Siu Kee develops his own science and instruments, putting the human body in unnatural circumstances to explore its limitations against the machine and space and its direction and relationship to space and time. Ho’s artistic practice has always involved the investigation and understanding of the body’s reflexive responses under specific conditions. Constructed from his body proportions together with his own science, Ho creates his own space with “Gravity Hoop”. In his works, Ho’s body becomes an instrument in what may seem to be an endurance training where space is experienced and balance is reestablished through the defiance and reversal of the natural order. Hu Xiang Qian, Trend Blindly, 2005, video, 3’
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