magdalena hill

Vanessa Beecroft in the interview with NOWNESS.COM about the relationship between the body paint and the colored marbles:

I wanted to transform the women into marbles, or into something between women and marbles. They looked like aliens—I related to that. In totality, it was like a camouflage of real and unreal; mimetic pieces made by real and unreal people. As in my other performances, there is the theme of the physical presence of live women, but with the presence of the stones, the ephemeral essence of the performance was reified. The women at once lost their immediate sense of being alive when camouflaged amongst the stones. The stones are colorful but hard and dead.

Taking part in Vanessa Beecroft's performance VB70 was a transformative and memorable experience. Before a crowd of 300 people entered the Lia Rumma gallery space all performers were connected through an invisible thread of trust and intimacy, weaving female beauty, power and strength together. This was the first time during a Beecroft performance the audience went among the performers. Our beautiful bond was abruptly broken by a crowd of intruders--so called art lovers. The intensity of being watched by lashing eyes, wanting to steal our souls, bodies and thoughts made me uncomfortabe at times. Images of slavery, witches being burnt at the stake and an all loving and compassionate Jesus came to my mind. During these 2.5 hours of holding my presence I had moments of doubts concerning the whole process. At some point I wanted to just walk away, take a taxi and go home. Nevertheless I felt committed to the artist's intention to stay the course and I continued holding my cross until the lights went down as the sign to leave.