Back in the DDR, when social realism was the only tolerated art form and painting and sculpture its only approved mediums, the auto-perforation artists began putting on highly seditious performances combining music, installation and action. Their bodies, and the foods that fuel them, became the focal point for abject and, in some cases, disturbing articulations of aesthetic expression.
In ‘Trichinen auf der Kreuzfahrt’ (1989), Lewandowsky shakes like a deranged psychopath as he scoops sustenance from his own head before spooning it into his mouth. Shot on an unsteady Super 8, the aesthetic depravity of these actions articulate a form of liberation from the constraints and repressions of life behind the Iron Curtain.
Their bodies, and the foods that fuel them, became the focal point.
They’re hard to watch, nasty, festering videos, dripping with animal blood and human fluids. Often, they’re too much, their schlock-horror antics and boorish urgency saved by the committed performances and underlying humour – mainly at the lunacy at what monstrous thing they are going to turn to next. At the back, there’s an original installation, which could’ve been taken directly out of 1984, as well as an array of documentation, articles and the actual Stasi reports on the artists. Shocking to think this is their first dedicated exhibition; now there’s likely to be a good deal more. ★★★★
- KVOST, Leipziger Str. 47, Mitte, through Jul 27, details
