From Bizarre to Macabre: 50 of the Strangest Art Performances

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31 Glass Bottle Performance – Russell Brand

Russell Brand’s violent outburst, which involved breaking a glass bottle over his head and stabbing himself with the shards, led to his expulsion from his second art school after he was criticized over a performance.

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32 The Maybe – Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton’s art installation and performance piece, “The Maybe,” involved her sleeping in a glass case on public display for a week in both London and Rome.

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33 Animal Testing – Jacqueline Traides

As part of an art performance, artist Jacqueline Traides willingly underwent public animal testing techniques to highlight the inhumane treatment of animals in cosmetics testing labs.

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34 Breath Control – Marina Abramovic and Ulay

Performance artists Marina Abramovic and Ulay connected their mouths and only breathed each other’s exhaled breaths until they collapsed from oxygen deprivation as part of one of their performance art pieces.

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35 Artist’s Shit – Piero Manzoni

Piero Manzoni’s controversial artwork, “Artist’s Shit,” consisted of 90 tin cans filled with feces, which he sold for up to €124,000 per tin can. In 2016, one of the tins sold for a new world record of €275,000 at an art auction in Milan.

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36 Spencer Tuick

Spencer Tunick’s “Naked” involved getting thousands of people to pose naked in public spaces for his performance art.

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37 Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono’s 1965 performance art piece “Cut Piece” involved her sitting on a stage and inviting audience members to come up and cut off pieces of her clothing until she was almost naked.

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38 Extreme Body Modification – Stelarc

The Australian artist Stelarc has performed extreme body modification performance art acts, including suspending himself from hooks in his skin and implanting a third ear on his arm.

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39 Brides on Tour – Pippa Bacca

In 2010, Italian artist Pippa Bacca was hitchhiking from Italy to the Middle East as part of a performance art piece called “Brides on Tour.” She was raped and murdered in Turkey by a man who had offered her a ride.

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40 Stone – Abraham Poincheval

In 2017, French artist Abraham Poincheval lived inside a giant rock for a week, eating and sleeping inside the rock, and documenting the experience for his performance art piece “Stone”.

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