Cut a piece

“Cut a piece” - Cut Piece performance by the conceptual artist Yoko Ono , the “researcher” of conceptual and performance art. The groundbreaking work '' 'Cut a piece' '' was first presented in 1964 at the Tokyo Sogetsu Arts Center

The name of this performance has a simple but destructive word that sounds like an instruction for use: “Cut it off”. She, going to the middle of the stage in the best dress, invited the audience to go up one by one to her and cut off a piece of her clothes. After that, she sat down on the floor, legs picked up for herself, and this was a sign to the beginning of the performance. ^[1] .

In 1965, she presented her performance at Carnegie Hall , where he received a wide response and was met more aggressively by the public. The next time, Yoko Ono presented the same performance in London, where the audience was enthusiastic about the performance. In Kyoto, a man brought a hand with scissors over Yoko Ono's head, which, in her words, “caused more confusion than fear” ^[2] . At the same time, an important role in the behavior of people was played not so much by the social and cultural aspect, as by the national-ethnic one. In London, performance participants demanded that the artist be protected.

In 2003, Yoko Ono repeated her performance in Paris. This time, her work was dedicated on September 11, 2001. This work is a call for peace and a demonstration of the political situation. “In the 60s, I did it out of anger. Now I am doing this out of love - and this is a very big difference, ”Ono said later in an interview.