Horse Performance

In a series of performances, the artist Joanna Rytel has presented herself dancing alongside various animals. These were mostly domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, geese and horses. What is interesting in these cases is the animals’ rather indifferent reaction. It seems that over the millennia they have spent in the company of humans, they have seen a great deal – if not everything. The situation is different in her Monkey Performance, in which the artist strips in front of a group of monkeys behind glass at the zoo. Here, she is perceived by the animals more as a welcome change of pace than as a nuisance or something they have already encountered.