Action: The audience gathers at the entrance of the museum, being offered a glass of red wine by the museum’s staff. Entering the main hall, they encounter the artist sitting upon a long grey rectangular plinth, in the exact position carried by the limestone figurine exhibited adjacently to the artist. The ‘temple-boy’ figurine, taken from the archeological collection of George and Nefeli Giabra Pierides housed right above the main hall, has its right hand placed on top of its right knee folded upwards - holding a bunch of grapes, whilst its left leg and hand are touching the plinth. Allowing for a time period to observe all exhibits, the artist reaches for a piece of string next to him, attached to a bunch of grapes placed at the bottom of the figurine’s plinth. By gathering the string, the bunch of grapes is dragged along the floor, finally reaching the artist’s hand. Cutting off a grape from the bunch and placing it into his mouth, the artist chews the grape, traces the ‘digestive’ process onto his torso and stomach with his hand, and finally reaches with this left hand behind his back to reveal a clear plastic marble, in the same size as the grape. Presented as the artificial result of this process, he throws the marble onto the floor, allowing it to reach the audience’s feet, whilst producing a trace of sound. The artist repeats this process in a variation of speed and direction - regarding the audience’s position within the space, until all grapes have been consumed and transformed. Once this process has been completed, the artist places the ‘naked’ stem onto the plinth and reaches for the floor. He then slowly approaches the first audience member and takes the glass of wine from their hand, attempting to consume all of its content, whilst maintaining direct eye contact. The artist gives back the empty wine glass, and moves in front of every audience member to repeat the same process, until all leftover wine has been consumed. The last couple of glasses filled with red wine are removed from the audience’s hands and placed onto the plinth. Taking a bottle of clear liquid (a combination of bleach and white vinegar) from behind the plinth, the artist fills the wine glasses in order to transform the red wine into a clear substance. Once the artist has ‘decolorized’ these remaining glasses, he takes the stem and places it at the bottom of the ‘temple-boy’ plinth - where the red globe grape was initially presented at the beginning of the performance, and then exits the space.

Temple-boy

Performance in parallel with limestone figurine "Temple-boy" (5th c. - middle of 4th c. BC) / Part of event "Moments at the Museum" / Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation / Nicosia - CY / December - 2017 / Duration: 45'

Material: artist’s body, figurine, grey rectangular plinth, red globe grapes, string, clear plastic marbles, red wine, wine glasses, bleach, white vinegar, glass bottles, audience members

Photo: Konstantinos Christodoulides