A rectangular sheet of Plexiglas with a red frame hangs on a wall like a painting. Inside, a naked man is pressed between the glass and the wall. Next to him is a tomato, also framed, as if it were a description of the picture. Close by, on a red stool, is a wrench that the audience can use to loosen or tighten the bolts that are holding the red frame.

With this performance, Yann Marussich questions the audience about the content of the work.The artwork is reminiscent of Bacon’s paintings: abstract figures of the human body, the abject body, convulsed, head and limbs twisted, flayed, always distorted under the pressure of intense invisible forces. The human being revealed is the same in Bacon’s paintings as it is in Marussich’s performance: an inhuman being, part flesh, part man, and part animal, an animal-like crucifixion inside the man. Something that cannot be depicted goes beyond the image of the body and its portrayal, to the point of deforming it. The trapped, deformed body appears to be caught in a state of despair: fleeing, escaping, clearing the stage.

The particle “ex” in the title of this performance, Ex-pression, points to a quick and violent transformation of the subject. In this way, Marussich leads us to perceive this performance as a visual and spatial mise en abyme of the body, in a material and commercial work. Presented as such, the audience is free to decide whether they accept the artwork as such or whether they would rather free the body from its artistic status. The richness of the performance lies in the fact that this work eludes us: despite the frame, it nevertheless remains open and accessible to all.

Text: Anne Rochat
English translation: AJS Craker