Description

The PlopEgg Painting Performance – A Birth of a Picture, Art Cologne, Germany (2014)

Performance von Milo Moiré

Duration 3:02 min

What does it mean to physically bring a new work into being, to birth it even, in its most primordial form?

The idea for A Birth of a Picture – Plopegg Art Cologne came about through a year-long process. “Plopegg” is a conceptual work that unites painting and performance art. It began with Milo Moiré standing in front of a white canvas in her studio and asking herself what would be the most corporeal way to make a painting. Key, universal symbols include the fertile womb and the egg – the archetype for creation. Routine experiences, such as sitting on a gynaecology chair, the colours of menstruation, losing an egg every month and the moment of creation before tabula rasa provided the impetus, leading to Milo Moiré birthing a picture in the truest sense of the word.

An upright standing nude on a loft… One with ink and acrylic fueled egg… A preserved canvas…

What the spectators are about to expect, is the compressed birth of a piece of art. Slowly the egg leaves the natal canal of the artist and smashes on the canvas, red colour flows out. The next egg contains another colour and so bit by bit, accompanied only by loud “Plops”, an abstract art work originates – archaically, uncontrollably and intuitively. At the end of this almost meditative art birth performance the stained canvas is folded up, smoothed and unfolded to a symmetrically reflected picture, astonishingly coloured and full of strong because universal symbolism.

The “PlopEgg Painting” itself releases a loose chain of thoughts – about the creation fear, the symbolic strength of the casual and the creative power of the femininity.

Plopegg Art Cologne

Milo Moiré opens her performance cycle “The PlopEgg Painting – A Birth of a Picture” on the renowned art fair Art Cologne. Within the context of art (performance), commerce (art fair) and opinion creation (media) a deliberate-accidental creation act happens, which instantly provokes ambivalent interpretations.

Artists are by definition creators, but who defines the demand for these so-called creations and the direction they take? “In this context, fairs like the Art Cologne are the ultimate decision-makers. For artists, they are like birth-control centers that determine future artistic descendants,” according to Moiré. This is the reason why she ended up choosing the Art Cologne, the world’s oldest art fair, for her first “Plopegg”. The artist prepared a collage on canvas in her studio beforehand. It was made up of a number of newspaper articles criticizing the art market. “The Birth of a Picture – Plopegg Art Cologne” is a proactive demonstration of the fact that artists’ reproductive existence lies in the hands of the commercial breeding grounds of the art market.