Milo Moiré

PlopEgg

Moiré's PlopEgg No. 1, performed at Art Cologne 2014, was a work of action painting that involved the expelling of paint filled eggs from her vagina on to a canvas, thus creating an abstract work of art. The eggs contained ink and acrylic paint. A video description of the work states "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 [strength]." The folding of the resulting canvas created a work which has been compared to a Rorschach test and a womb. Moiré writes: "To create art, I use the original source of femininity – my vagina."

The Script System No. 2

In June 2014, for The Script System No. 2, Moiré travelled to Art Basel naked with the names of items of clothing marked on her body in paint; she was refused entry, forcing her to dress to enter the exhibition. Of The Script System, she has said "[it] is inspired by the script theory of cognitive psychology. Each of us knows these scripts (e.g. restaurant script), recurrent, stereotyped action sequences, after which we work every day. Especially early in the morning on the way to work, we work almost automatically, often without awareness of our environment. These everyday blindness I wanted to break through my performance." Moiré claims that lacking an outer shell of clothes, the human body regains its ability to communicate without the distractions of money, fashion, ideology or even time. The experience of the art viewer is also transformed with the reaction or non-reaction of the public an integral part of the performance. Her first nude performance was in 2007 and she has performed nude ever since in order to provide an authentic and unmediated experience.

In July 2015, Moiré faced arrest for taking nude selfies with tourists at the Eiffel Tower.

In 2016 she performed naked to protest the 2015 New Year Eve sexual attacks by immigrants in Germany. In her latest performance, in summer of 2016, which took place in several major cities: Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, and London, Moiré invited the public (people over the age of 18) to touch and fondle her genitals and breasts inside a mirror box, for 30 seconds per person. While performing in London, she was arrested by police and was fined £750, and ordered to pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £75. The performance resembles the work "Touch and Tap Cinema" by Valie Export, performed from 1968 to 1971.

Art or pornography

Moiré has deliberately placed herself on the interface between art and pornography with videos on her website described as "uncensored" that are available to view for a fee, and the naked performance of her works inviting the act of censorship by media outlets. Moiré has said that there should be no limit to art and that death is the only limit she accepts. She has cited Marina Abramović and Joseph Beuys as particular influences. Art can be pornography and pornography can be art.

Criticism

Writing about PlopEgg in The Guardian in a piece entitled, "The artist who lays eggs with her vagina – or why performance art is so silly", Jonathan Jones commented, "And yet it's not a strong statement at all. It is absurd, gratuitous, trite and desperate. Anywhere but an art gathering, this would be regarded as a satire on modern cultural emptiness." Jess Denham in The Independent commented, "Not long ago there was Lady Gaga's 'vomit artist', but now Milo Moiré is making her look tame", adding, "the latest desperate effort to shock in the name of art."

Arrests

In 2015, Moiré was arrested by French police, and spent the night in the cells, after posing for naked "selfies" with tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower. The following year, she was arrested again in London for allowing members of the public to touch her vagina whilst placing their hands into a mirrored box around her waist.

Personal life

Moiré lives in Düsseldorf with her partner, the photographer Peter Palm.

Selected works