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 GELITIN The Dig Cunt everybody is welcome, even the ones who are not welcome May 7–13 Coney Island Click Here to see Photos of the Event The four-man artist collective hailing from Austria dig and refill a giant hole on Coney Islands’ beach each day for 7 days in this durational performance piece. As the artists describe it, ‘We will dig a hole in the sand, seven hours of digging, and in the evening close it again and hop on top of the sand of the closed hole to make the ground sound again. Tired and without arms, we will take the train back to Manhattan, to get some rest for the next day. The next day, we will take the train again to Coney Island and dig a hole and then close it again.” Repeated over seven days, Gelitin describe the proposed durational work as a celebration of the millennium of the female and the anti-phallus, in effect the artistic reversal of the erect public monument. Part Dada, part Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), the absurdly poetic act of ritualized displacement, absence and renewal. The durational event echo’s the earthworks of Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer and Claus Oldenburgs’ temporary 6-foot trench ‘Hole’ (1967) dug by a professional grave-digger in New York’s Central Park during the time of the Vietnam War. Ali Janka, Wolfgang Gantner, Tobias Urban, and Florian Reither have worked together as Gelitin since 1993. According to The New York Times, the group ‘thrives on arduous conditions’. The members gained notoriety in New York when, as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s studio program in 2000, they secretly removed a window from the 91st floor of the World Trade Center and briefly installed an exterior balcony. Their work encourages audience participation and sometimes requires the signing of no-fault waivers. |