Installation, live performance, performance documentation, as a part of The Artists' Zoo Exhibition
Solyanka State Gallery, Moscow
Sept 18 - Dec 1, 2013
Hours performed: 168
Photos by Igor Afrikian
During the hours of operation of the “Artists' Zoo” (4 hours on each of the 7 days) my face remains open to all winds and every visitor. Aside from those hours, it is hidden under a mask of a black sheep, in which I take shower and sleep. This way the face is deprived of the social functions and retains zero socialization, having to deal with the obligations of an artist who works as a museum director: a sheep owes no one anything - it can only bleat, but it keeps silent, just in case.
"My Face" continues "My Mouth Is A Temple" (part of "Marina Abramovic Presents", 2009) - there I built a chapel of my mouth, and every visitor had to blacken the teeth or clean the tongue or feed the mouth raw potatoes. ”My Face” just like “My Mouth” is based on the image of the god of carnival, whom a crowd first exaggeratingly worships and then destroys. In "My Face” the viewer has to fulfill the whims of the artist, which are not always good for the artist himself but belong to the category of the sacred and involve the viewer in a mystical ritual.
