I came across a Latvian artist Arthur Berzinsh, who recently caused lots of controversy for one of his new performance art pieces.
His work was described as: ‘Arthur Berzinsh works often remind elusive, distant, even mythical images, while the hidden meaning of the works show a deep attachment to human psychological problems, as well as the painful socio-political issues. Bt the cross sections of male / female relationships is intertwined with the artist attempts to access the woman closer. The human being is depicted as a microchip, including not only the body and the psychological dimensions of emotions, but also the mind and the structure of categorization performance.’ (Velde, A.)
Berzinsh’s artworks are usually very expressive and stir up mixed emotions in the viewers (which, for me, is good art), therefore it is not wrong to expect his performance pieces to do just that. Oh, and Eschatology piece also did so much more..
It’s a cannibalistic body art performance. And I can admit I miss body art so much (have almost completely lost contact with it after my undergrad dissertation, go figure), that I was thoroughly enjoying watching the video (and secretly wanting to be there, to experience the sensation in person). You can read more about it here.
What struck me the most was the artist’s description of the artwork: ‘This performance is a metaphor of consumer society that consumes itself.‘ It is beautiful. And I fully recognize its meaning and execution. It is powerful, though the majority says it’s wrong. But hey, it’s art..isn’t everything permitted for the pure artistic expression?? Or not? Let’s not go into details, I don’t have the patience at the moment..
I am just going to leave you with a comment from one of the youtube users under the video:
‘I love how they try to make it seem so innocent as if it were a deep meaning of art when in reality you’re using art to hide the truth agenda you are trying to get people to accept cannibalism I’ve seen this in the media I’ve seen this in many other articles there is a scientist who wants to make human meat but made in labs using stem cells. He claims that it will make the world a better place because we would no longer need to kill animals and also it would help stop world hunger I can’t believe people actually fall for this crap these kind of people degrade and strip us away from the value that we have wake up this is it normal it’s not art it is a deception!‘
As I said, art works when it makes a reaction. Good job!
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS:
- featured image: Berzinsh, A. (2014) Lieben ist Starker als der Tod. Available at: http://www.berzinsh.lv/en/blog/jaunakie-darbi-recent-works-poslednie-raboty ⌈Downloaded: 30 March 2018⌋.
Research adventureS of a curator 