Pushing the Limits: 40 Bizarre Art Performances That Will Leave You Speechless

In 2001, artist Michael Landy destroyed all of his possessions as part of his performance art piece "Break Down," which he described as witnessing his own death and feeling happy about it.

In 1994, the duo behind electronic band The KLF burned one million pounds they had earned in a performance art piece called "K Foundation Burn a Million Quid," with one of them later expressing regret for their actions.

In 2004, Joe Deutch, an art graduate student at UCLA, played 'Russian Roulette' in front of an entire classroom and filmed the incident as a performance art piece. The school's ill-handling of the situation caused renowned artists Chris Burden and Nancy Rubin to resign as faculty.

Vito Acconci's performance art piece called Seedbed involved the artist lying hidden under a ramp and masturbating for 8 hours a day while his fantasies about those walking above him were played over a loudspeaker for attendees to hear.

In 1976, artist Ulay stole a painting from the New National Gallery in Berlin in broad daylight and then returned it as both a political statement and performance art. He received only a very light sentence.

Marta Minujín, an Argentinian conceptual and performance artist, used 100,000 commonly censored books to build a full-scale replica of the Parthenon at a Nazi book burning site.

During Bob Dylan's performance at the 1998 Grammy Awards, one of the back-up dancers (a self-proclaimed performance artist) ripped his shirt off, revealing the words 'SOY BOMB' painted in big black letters on his chest, and began dancing erratically before being removed by security.

At Art Cologne 2014, performance artist Milo Moiré expelled paint-filled eggs from her vagina onto a large canvas, which became an abstract work of art.

Artist Chris Burden created a piece of art called "Samson" that, depending on how many people came to see it, would destroy whatever museum or gallery it was placed in.

Benjamin Bennett's endurance art piece called "Sitting and Smiling" involves him recording himself sitting motionless and smiling for 4 hours. He has produced hundreds of videos of this performance, including one where a burglar breaks into his house, which he ignores while he continues his performance.