January 25, 2024

"'Imponderabilia'... requires two nude performers to stand opposite each other in a slim doorway that visitors are encouraged to squeeze through to enter an adjoining gallery."

"According to his lawsuit, [the performer John] Bonafede was sexually assaulted seven times by five museum visitors.... Mr. Bonafede said in legal filings... that MoMA officials 'turned a blind eye' to the assaults and created a hostile work environment where performers were expected to submit to the actions of unruly audience members.... [T]he exhibition was grueling for many performers. Some participants reported fainting in the galleries.... Others complained that guests were inappropriately touching their bodies and making rude remarks about their appearances.... If visitors were uncomfortable passing between a naked man and woman, they were allowed to walk through another entryway to the left and skip the experience...."

From "MoMA Sued by Artist Who Performed Nude in Marina Abramovic Work/The artist, John Bonafede, says museum officials failed to prevent visitors from sexually assaulting performers in the 2010 show" (NYT).

57 comments:

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

No one forced John Bonafede to take his clothes off. He volunteered to be a "performer." What did he think was going to happen? That "performance exhibit" is just another stupid MoMA progressive so called work of art. Play stupid games, win stupid awards.

Dave Begley said...

What was MOMA thinking? Is MOMA now a strip club?

Wince said...

Fortuitously, when the male model in the doorway got an erection, the visitors to the NYC gallery were all experienced subway turnstile jumpers.

Leland said...

I would think the exhibit was about what people would do when confronted with the situation of going between two naked people. Perhaps whoever hired the models should have made it clear that they would be touched, and they should have hired models that would have been fine with those arrangements and agree to them in writing. I suspect they did.

Not my kind of art.

Breezy said...

I feel compelled to repeat my comment from the recent cave post:

Gosh, I am so grateful there are people brave enough to do the things we all are yearning to do but have much better sense.

BarrySanders20 said...

Jimminy Christmas - what's the statute of limitations in NYC? That show was 14 years ago. Maybe the discovery rule applies and he just found out what the unruly patrons did to the naked passed out man, all as a part of the interactive art on display.

M Jordan said...

When I exited the Louvre a decade or so ago I said to my dear wife, “I wish I had done a penis/breast tally to see which won.” The breasts, you would think, would easily since it’s two to one per statue/painting (well, usually) but penises were rampant and I’m pretty sure they would’ve edged out breasts. My favorite was the sculpture of four huge men looking down at the penises. It resonated with me somehow.

To conclude. Penises and breasts will always be competing for attention.

RideSpaceMountain said...

I expect nothing less from the spirit cooking witch.

Jeff Vader said...

Is this the tipping point for peak stupidity?

rehajm said...

Art math: Seven times by five visitors = Two went back for seconds

stutefish said...

I'm pretty sure everything I'm inclined to say goes without saying.

gilbar said...

i knew a girl, back in the '80's, that worked as a dancer.
She often complained that the men would be TOO FORWARD while tipping her..
No, i'm just kidding.. I DID know (several) dancers back then, and they knew what was expected..
IF things DID go TOO FAR, well, that's what the bouncers were for.

What do today's performers think they are signing up for? sex work is sex work is sex work is sex

gilbar said...

i Suppose, that this is the time for someone to "explain" to me, that it WASN'T "sex work",
it was just standing REALLY close to people, while they brush (past) your naked penis..
hmmm sure SOUNDS like sex work

tommyesq said...

Art math: Seven times by five visitors = Two went back for seconds

Or one for thirds - but you would think by then the dude would have seen him/her coming...

Enigma said...

I shudder to think of the horrors suffered by the women who are paid to lay naked as living sushi tables.

https://www.sushifaq.com/sushiotaku/2016/10/05/naked-sushi-called-art-nyotaimori/
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/10/naked-sushi

tim maguire said...

They were hired to stand naked in a doorway to make people squeeze past them and they are upset that people touched them while they were standing naked in a doorway?

BarrySanders20 said...Jimminy Christmas - what's the statute of limitations in NYC? That show was 14 years ago

An opportunity created by NY's rewriting of the law to accommodate the Trump lawsuit?

n.n said...

Exhibits with "benefits".

Aggie said...

Wait, did this happen in a dressing room?

CJinPA said...

"The court rules that you're all weirdos. Case dismissed."

Oligonicella said...

Don't think for a second this wasn't a trap. Nobody but nobody would take that job without wanting to and knowing just from the door size they'd be rubbing bodies - which is why they wanted to.

This is the end point of coddling all those assholes who stop other people from going about their day to show off their 'positions' and throwing blame at others for it. In this case literally.

Dude1394 said...

Well the folks see that statute of limitation are flexible these days, so why not. The legal system has become the new lottery, has for a while. There used to be judges that would say get the **** out of here you idiot. But no longer, they are afraid of offending someone, anyone for anything.

Quaestor said...

Performance art was the last refuge of the talent-deprived. Now it's the courts.

Bonkti said...

So, the attractive nuisances are the plaintiffs?

RideSpaceMountain said...

@Enigma

"NyoTaiMori"

Why does the sushi smell fishy? Fresh sushi isn't supposed to smel...oh. Ooooooooooooooh.

Earnest Prole said...

With American performance art one can hardly be blamed for suspecting a lawsuit is an integral part of the performance.

TheDopeFromHope said...

So the Northwestern football team got their ideas from MOMA? Well, Northwestern is an "elite" institution.

Ice Nine said...

Some are wondering what was "nude performer" John Bonafede thinking?!

I'm wondering what the hell were the people who declined the alternative, nude performerless entryway thinking?!

TheDopeFromHope said...

A little background on the Northwestern football team:

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/07/08/sports/former-nu-football-player-details-hazing-allegations-after-coach-suspension/

In a once-a-year tradition dubbed “the carwash,” the first player said that some players would stand naked at the entrance to the showers and spin around, forcing those entering the showers to “basically (rub) up against a bare-naked man.” Upon entering the showers, the player alleged that players set up a hose they connected to the shower to spray people. “It’s extremely painful,” the player said.

The player also alleged that he witnessed and was forced to participate in what he called a naked center-quarterback exchange, wherein a freshman quarterback was forced to take an under-center snap from a freshman center, while both players were naked. The player said that on one instance, another player was “very vocally adamant” about not wanting to participate in this exchange. Older players threatened to “run him” if he refused and there was “no other option,” according to the player.

Michael said...

Genius. So bold. So transgressional. McArthur Grant awaits.

who-knew said...

Leland says "Not my kind of art." I say, it's not art. It might end up as exhibit A in the decline and fall of western civilization.

n.n said...

The male as a health bar hose. The female as a wagyu womb. A baby on a black rock. What was taboo is now 50 shades of gray that the Chinese can attest to progress.

zipity said...


Cry harder. And learn to code.

AlbertAnonymous said...

“Look at me look at me, but don’t judge me, you Bigot”

Not just for social media anymore, now it’s in real live “art” exhibits.

Ice Nine said...

>Others complained that guests were inappropriately touching their bodies and making rude remarks about their appearances....<

Oh no, rude remarks too? Now that is truly over the top!

rwnutjob said...

I may be stupid (I am stupid, but maybe more here) Hear me out. Just an idea, but if you don't want to be touched inappropriately, and I know this is crazy talk, but don't stand in a doorway naked.

PM said...

There's always gonna be that jobber from Akron that's all Hiya-hiya-glad-to-meet-ya.

Iman said...

#TiredoftehTugs

Iman said...

#wetwillie

PM said...

What, today, passes for Vladimir and Estragon.

Scott Patton said...

All they had to do was post a couple of strip club bouncers next to the doorway. Who knows, it might have added to the artisticality of the thing.

"assaulted seven times by five museum visitors". Did someone come back for seconds and thirds or did two people just come back for seconds? Or even worse, was it 35 total assaults?
If there were some characteristic(s) about that man's naked body that induced a compulsion in onlookers to assault him exactly seven times, that would be artistically remarkable.

SDaly said...

CJinPA says all that needs to be said.

MadisonMan said...

Some participants reported fainting in the galleries
I'm getting used to progressive lenses. Read that as farting in the galleries.

Narr said...

Reminds me of "Dicknanigans" by Key and Peele.

Joe Smith said...

Why bother with the museum when you can get the same experience on 42nd street or in the Castro almost any time for free?

Btw, is 'standing there' considered performing?

Howard said...

The Big Lewbowski broke the performance art mold.

Interested Bystander said...

This is one of the stupidest stories I’ve ever read. You take an acting gig where you block a doorway in your birthday suit , in public, and you act surprised by an appropriate behavior? Yeah right.

mezzrow said...

This is what happens when you recognize that artists are oppressors and their models/props are the oppressed. How disgusted are you by oppressors who use the bodies of the oppressed to make their "art"? Making victims for kicks. Me too, says the victim. Here!

Now they will pay for their hubris, those oppressors. Revolution!*

*and a search for available deep pockets to mine for gold

loudogblog said...

I recall reading a story about this 1977 performance art a few years ago. (Where people had to walk between two naked people in a doorway.) But there was no issue with any kind of sexual assault back then. (At least nothing that was reported.) So have the guests changed, or are the performers more willing to report inappropriate activity?

Back when I used to stage manage Ice Shows, back in the late 1980s, the female performers were constantly running around topless backstage and did wardrobe changes out in the open. Now there are temporary changing rooms backstage right and left and a very, very strict policy for the techs that they call, "Eyes on the ice."

Geoff Matthews said...

I support this lawsuit.
It illustrates the obvousness of why we encourage people to wear clothes.

Jupiter said...

"According to his lawsuit, [the performer John] Bonafede was sexually assaulted seven times by five museum visitors ..."

OK, but wasn't he inflicting indecent exposure on them?

I have often wondered about the legal status of boxing. If I walked up to someone on the street and punched him in the face, that would be assault and battery. As I understand the matter, it would be a crime no matter how me might feel about it. But somehow it is legal in a boxing ring?

Richard Dolan said...

So, the exhibit was in 2010 and the lawsuit is being filed in 2024. Bonafede doesn't look like a minor and his claim is that MoMA had a duty to prevent the continuing assault(s). But he doesn't seem to have done anything to stop it at the time, even after he says it continued to happen and he was better placed than anyone else to take action to stop the groping. Doesn't sound like this lawsuit will have a long life.

This one deserved the 'lawsuit I hope fails' tag.

JMcMurray said...

Tom Wolfe in Back to Blood had some great stuff on modern art. Modern Art as porn. Tom Wolfe, we miss you so much.

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Narr said...

The story mentions visitors passing between a naked man and woman, gilbar, not two dick-havers.


Oligonicella said...

Jupiter:
If I walked up to someone on the street and punched him in the face, that would be assault and battery. As I understand the matter, it would be a crime no matter how me might feel about it.

Because that someone is an innocent victim.

But somehow it is legal in a boxing ring?

Because there's no innocent victim.

In many states, if you challenge someone to a fight, you're responsible for the licking you might receive. Others have "fighting words".

For boxing, there's an actual contract to combat. I don't know about boxing but in karate competition, there's clauses about malicious contact. For instance, Tyson’s boxing license was revoked by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and he was fined $3 million plus legal fees for biting Holyfield.

gspencer said...

Assumption of the risk.

Case dismissed.

walter said...

Sad that such a sensible idea could have drawbacks....