Art performance
"Between Nature and Culture"
Performance / Conceptual Art
This performance functions as a philosophical investigation using the body as a living metaphor.
Through audience interaction, the work explores human duality and collective behavior, examining the tension between nature and culture as coexisting forces within human existence.
Visitors may restrict the performer’s body or cut living flowers to adorn it, exposing how beauty, control, and cruelty emerge through collective human choice.
Date: 12 July 2026
Location: Laarne, Belgium
Duration: 4 hours
Performer: The art object, standing still, no water (4h), no food (24 h), passive throughout the performance
Audience: Approximately 100 visitors
The story of performance
Documentation
I started the performance at 15:00. The space was constantly filled with people coming in, watching, moving around, and reacting to the performance.
No one seemed to stay indifferent.
There were only a couple of moments when I was standing completely alone
Installation:
a sculptural body structure
80 living white peonies and
an interaction table containing 30 objects, including belts, ribbons, ropes, straps, elastic thread, scissors, a mirror, a fan, and a chain.
During the first hour, most participants chose to cut flowers and attach them to my body, especially to my chest and shoulders…almost instinctively seeking beauty.
At one point, three people interacted with me simultaneously.
I remained completely passive, standing still and looking into the distance.
Several people described me as “a doll” or “a puppet.” It was also interesting to see the different ways couples interact, and how you can spot men seemingly trying to hide the fact that they’re staring intently at the body in “the cage”.
Many visitors appeared very uncomfortable at first. Some hesitated for a long time before approaching. Others acted immediately.
One participant used a belt to bind my hanging arm. Remaining motionless caused the blood to collect in my hand, and after some time the pain became intense.
Another participant slowly poured water over the flowers attached to my chest, shoulders and my lower body. Under the heat of the afternoon sun, the sensation was unexpectedly comforting.
There was only one moment that truly scared me: one man (around 40).
He was the only person who made me feel afraid. He watched from a distance for a long time, waiting until no one else was near me. He carefully selected a belt, stood silently in front of me, and held my gaze before moving behind me.
He placed the belt around my neck and began to choke me. It lasted only a short time, but I could not breathe. Then he stopped and tightened the belt enough to make breathing difficult.
For the first time during the performance, I felt fear because I did not know how far he intended to go, and I didn’t want to stop my performance and knowing myself I have a strong will…
Eventually, he attached the belt to the structure on my back and stopped. It was still not that easy to breath.
He came back in front of me and looked into my eyes for a long time. I did not look away. I held his gaze without fear. I felt Strong, powerful, and fearless like never before.
Then he stopped and said:
“Well done.”
One man cut elastic thread into several pieces — 5 in total, one for each of my fingers — and tied each one around the fingertips of my left hand before manipulating my fingers like those of a puppet.
After a short time, the pain in my fingertips became almost unbearable, before gradually turning into numbness.
There is something I discovered about pain: if your body hurts so much that it becomes almost impossible to endure, and you feel like you might faint, at some point you stop feeling the pain anymore.
My state of mind was so clear, and all my senses became incredibly vivid — so much so that it felt as if I could see in 360 degrees. I entered a state of enlightenment.
At another moment ( almost at the end of performance) , I was blindfolded with a black translucent ribbon pulled tightly enough that I could no longer open my eyes. And then the same person tighten up my hand to my back.
The sun grew stronger throughout the performance. My feet burned against the ground. My body became exhausted.
The stem of one flower, attached to my chest near the beginning of the performance, pressed continuously against my sternum and eventually created a wound. It remained painful until the end.
All feelings were intensified. The love I have for my loved ones who came was so strong, so intense, like never before. Through the dialogue we had with our eyes and our energies, I felt a connection that was difficult to describe.
By the final hour, my feet, knees, hands, head, chest, and shoulders all hurt.
Yet despite the pain, I felt stronger and more alive than I ever had before.
One of the reasons I created this performance was to reshape a tremendous and deeply painful trauma — the violence and all sort of abuse I experienced when I was four years old.
Although I had surrendered physical control to the audience, I realized that I had never lost mental control.
Even within the cage I had created, I experienced an unexpected sense of liberation.
The audience’s energy became a force that pushed both my body and my mind beyond what I believed was possible.
I liberated myself from an experience I had when I was four years old, at least partly. The suffering I experienced during the performance was chosen. I knew what I was creating, I knew the conditions I was placing myself in, and I remained present within them. I carried them all the way to the end.
Thank you for your attention.
Special thanks to Harry_Oak and The Snap Man for the photography.