段英梅 · Yingmei Duan

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Venus from rubbish

Photos

Performance

The audience enters the gallery space, which is fully covered with garbage. Between the waste, one sees a smiling woman who is naked and holding a white vase in her hands. She stands quiet and immobile on a pedestal.

After a while she begins to move and her smile gradually disappears. She seems tired, relaxes her neck and arms and shakes her legs. While looking at the vase, she starts to cough.

She slowly descends from the pedestal and lies on the floor for a few minutes among the rubbish. Then she arises exhausted, moves back and forth and seems to search for something.

She rises on a scale and checks her weight. While staring at a piece of bread, she repeatedly coughs, then reaches for a beauty magazine, watches a picture of a beautiful woman and contemplates a small Buddha figure ...

As she caresses her body, she moves to the audience and sadly stares into the eyes of the people, while her cough increases.

Finally, she returns reluctant to the pedestal, looking at the vase for a long time. At the end, she stands again motionless and smiling like she did at the beginning.