Let Me Wash Your Hands, film still

Let Me Wash Your Hands, film still
Picture 1 of 2

Let Me Wash Your Hands, 1994


Performance using a metal pan filled with iodine; the author cleaned and sterilized the hands of everyone who agreed.

 

“I want to touch you. I want to feel your warmth. I want to know you feel it. There isn’t so much time. There is a limited number of days to go and we will be no more. You have a body, no matter how wasted it is. The head. The torso, the legs and hands. You are a man or a woman. There are some impulses, That awaken the memory Sometimes just sensual impressions from the past. This is your identity. This is part of your being. You are now. Your body knows more than you can realize. I want to touch you. ” I am going to wash your hands in iodine. I am thinking about how absurd it is: to wash the hands of another person in iodine. Well, it cleans and purifies, prevents infection, decay and the growth of microorganisms. Iodine is a sterile, disinfecting substance. Yes, this is all true but it will never make your hands or my mind clean.”

 

 

1996 UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA;
2008 BWA Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
2009 Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA
camera: Lars Kremer
many thanks to Julie Dermansky, Michael Dermansky and Paweł Sztwiertnia for help


Return..