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Sunday, June 13, 2021

Artists - Part 8

Almar Atlason

You've probably never heard of artist Almar Atlason, but everyone in Iceland has, because of something he did in 2015 as a 23-year-old student at the Iceland Academy of Arts in Reykjavik.

As a student project, he constructed a glass box (above) in a public hallway in the arts center and lived in it, naked, for a week, as performance art.

He stayed in the box 24/7.  Not only could people in the hallway see him, but live video of him was streamed on YouTube. 

He brought nothing into the box.  Everything, including food, water, and these playing cards, was given to him by people outside the box (there were holes in one side of the box to pass things in and out). 

He couldn't get any exercise in the box.  Well, he did find one way to exercise, above, captured from the video feed.  Evidently, knowing that he was on live video didn't bother him.  Now that's what I call performance art. 

After a week, he emerged from the box, looking very much the Icelandic Viking – blond, bearded and hairy – and definitely an unashamed male. 

4 comments:

Joseph Brian Scott said...

How and where was he using the bathroom?

Unashamed Male said...

That was the #1 question (pun not intended) on the sites that reported this. He did not leave the box. He urinated into bottles and defecated into plastic bags that were then passed to people outside. Kind of gross. And all livestreamed on video.

whkattk said...

Well, I can think of no better way to represent actual life.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

What people do for art! Thanks for the response.