Gina Pane – Discours Mou et Mat

Description

Before the performance begins the camera focuses on the objects placed in the performance space: two mirrors with sheets of glass on top, two cardboard cymbals with cotton wool, a pair of boxing gloves, knuckledusters, a golf ball, razor blades, a binoculars, a tennis racket and a ball hanging from the ceiling.
On the first sheet of glass there is a word “alienation” written, and stars are drawn; on the second one there is a portrait of a person wearing sunglasses, a field of tulips and a mill reflecting in it. A naked woman is lying on a mat, her back is turned to the camera.
Gina Pane is dressed in a white blouse, white pants and white heels. She is wearing the shades, her arm is decorated with stars. She kneels before the sheets of glass and plays cardboard cymbals which make no sound. After that she smashes the glass with her bare fists.
In the next part of the performance she sits on a chair. She hits the ball hanging from the ceiling with a tennis racket, and stops it with her forhead. Meanwhile we can hear a female voice talking in French.
Then she crawles to the broken glass while gasping into the microphone, and hits the glass again.
In the next scene she cuts her lips with a razor blade, blood running down her chin.
At the end of the performance the artist is lying next to the naked woman and looks at the ceiling through binoculars.
Afterwards we see the audience leaving the performance space sidestepping the motorcycle that blocked the passage.