Jochen Gerz
«Marsyas (From Death, Out Of Life)»

In this performance – no. 6 in the 'Griechische Stücke ('Greek Pieces') – Jochen Gerz refers to the myth of the satyr Marsyas using two symmetrical large-format photographs of a raven and a monitor. Marsyas lost a musical contest against Apollo, who hung and flayed him alive in punishment. Gerz begins by coating with brown paint the birds (Apollonian attributes) hanging from a pole. He turns his back on the audience, which is meanwhile being filmed by a video camera. In the second part, the artist, now lying bird-like on the ground, is confronted with video footage of the audience. Trembling and straining, he smears the monitor with the brown paint on his head, and so wipes out the picture of his audience.