preservation of Abramovic

(originally published November 28, 2010.)



darksilenceinsuburbia: The Lips of Thomas (Performance), 1976 by Marina Abramovic [originally a link, site is now down].

There is no longer any video documentation (if there ever was) of the Lips of Thomas performance. From the site linked, however:

I slowly eat 1 kilo of honey with a silver spoon.

I slowly drink 1 liter of red wine out of a crystal glass.

I break the glass with my right hand.

I cut a five pointed star on my stomach with a razor blade.

I violently whip myself until I no longer feel any pain.

I lay down on a cross made of ice blocks.

The heat of a suspended space heater pointed at my stomach causes the cut star to bleed.

The rest of my body begins to freeze.

I remain on the ice cross for 30 minutes until the audience interrupts the piece by removing the ice blocks from underneath.

In total, the original performance (at the Galerie Krinzinger in Innsbruck, in 1973) lasted two hours. She restaged it, along with work from other performance artists, in 2005 at the Guggenheim in New York, part of her performance piece Seven Easy Pieces.