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Art exhibition that forces visitors to squeeze between two naked models leaves people asking the same grim question
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A controversial art exhibition that forces visitors to squeeze their own bodies between those of two nude models has once again raised the same question.
Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović is no stranger to raising eyebrows with her immersive works, including one of her best known performances, Rhythm 0, in which she placed 72 objects on a table and allowed strangers to use them on her as they pleased, as she stood there passively for six hours.
Some of the objects could give pleasure, while others could be used to inflict pain, or to harm or even kill her, and the level of depravity increased the longer the time went on, until the experience finally ended after six hours.
Another of her most famous works, named Imponderabillia, was presented in the Royal Academy of Arts 2023 retrospective of her over five-decade career, which seems a bit tamer in comparison to Rhythm 0, but is still by no means what you'd expect.
In the installation, which was first realized by Abramović and Ulay in June 1977, sees two models - a male and a female - standing eye to eye, completely nude, between two walls with just a small gap between them.
The installation formed the entry to the London art exhibition, meaning visitors were forced to squeeze between the two naked bodies to enter. (Though it's worth noting that there was also an alternative entry for visitors that didn't wish to go through the naked doorway.)
The Royal Academy's head of exhibitions Andrea Tarsia previously said, per Sky News: "[It creates a] confrontation with nakedness, gender, sexuality and desire."
Though it has now been a few years since the retrospective took place in London, the naked doorway is once again going viral - and everyone has wondered the same thing.
Namely, which way they'd choose to face when going through it.
Social media users revealed whether they'd go through facing the male or the female, and thus deciding to enter the exhibit "meat to cheek or meat to meat" - meaning males would have their buttocks facing the male model's genitalia, or their own genitalia facing that of the male model.
One user wrote: "Meat to cheek or meat to meat is the eternal question," while another responded: "I'm going meat for meat."
One revealed: "i attended this show when it was at moma. i went cheek to meat and teat to teat."
Others added: "Meat to cheek obviously," and: "d**k on d**k i'll even stare him in the eyes #nofear."
Someone else joked: "Imma spin continously mid walkthrough like those wiper cylinder brushes at the car wash."
Others pointed out: "There is a superior answer. I’m not going in," and: "I figured it out. Just don’t go into the exhibition. You people are not obligated to answer."
Speaking about the revival of the piece in December 2023, Abramović told the Royal Academy of the Arts: "I can't believe this piece still has the same criticism as it had in the 70s.
"People still have the feeling of being offended by nudity - this is ridiculous. Nudity has been in art since forever - look at the renaissance, look at the early paintings, look at the cave paintings. There are nudes everywhere."
When the piece was first performed in 1977, with a naked Abramović and Ulay flanking the doorway, it was shut down by police after three hours because they were naked.