Artist to sit naked on a toilet for two days to protest 'bulls**t' art world
Lisa Levy is directly responding to Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When you decide the art world is simply too ridiculous to handle, there’s only one thing for it: sit on a toilet in your birthday suit for two days to protest this “bulls**t”.
That’s exactly the lengths comedian, artist and psychotherapist Lisa Levy is going to after growing increasingly fed up with what she sees as “egoic pretense” in her industry.
Protest piece The Artist is Humbly Present will take place on 30 and 31 January from 1-6pm at Christopher Stout Gallery in New York. Levy will be fully starkers, immobile and silent. Rumour has it she is bringing a heater to keep warm.
The free durational performance is a direct response to Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present at Moma in 2010, which Levy considers a “symbol of contemporary art world pretense”.
Visitors will be able to sit on another toilet opposite her, as they did on a chair in Abramovic’s original, and react to the performance however they wish. Touching Levy in any way is banned.
“Ego and pretense has seriously f**ked with the quality of work being made in the art world,” she says on her Facebook page. “I’m also tired of the bulls**t trendy art dialogue about how the art world is driven by rich people who want shiny work and don’t care about meaning as well. But mostly I think it will be weirdly fun to be naked in public.”
Many artists have been turning to nudity to make statements recently, from Milo Moire standing defiantly naked in the streets after the Cologne sex attacks to Mathilde Grafstrom’s banned exhibition combating negative self-image in Copenhagen.
Next time you want to make a point, you know what to do.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments