Rising

Performance artists like to explode boundaries between the physical body and its shunned excretions in order to dismantle what seemingly appears a radiant surface. In the 1960s they first began to rebel against repressive social conditions by pissing, shitting or bleeding in public. In Rising Stefan-Manuel Eggenweber no longer employs shock, pain and disgust to foster dialogue regarding dominant rubbish. He ironically contends with prevailing conventions of good taste by being trashy and provocative. A person with a beard appears in ugly make-up, flowery clothing and glittering jewelry. Caught between glamor and slapstick, the figure innocently gazes into the camera before launching into a recitation, while operating the camera himself. Directly addressing the lens and the audience, he urges us to finally permit what we have digested to rise up. The repetition of a sentence functions as a kind of refrain: "From the stomach in your chest through your throat to the world". It soon is demonstrated and becomes obvious that he in fact is talking about vomiting: regurgitation as a liquid scream from the geographic south, from the underground, the stomach. He forces up ghastly green-brown slop before the picture goes blurry and poetry in the form of written text assumes the leading role. (Brigitta Burger-Utzer)

Translation: Eve Heller