Peter Weibel

The piece from the show at Slought that I chose was the "Tap- and Touchcinema" from 1968 performed by Peter Weibel and his lover at the time. The basic idea of this performance was that passerbys had to reach into a box that was attached to the woman's chest and touch her breasts. Weibel is speaking into a megaphone to a large crowd of people, he is reading off of a piece of paper, but he's not speaking a language I can understand so I feel like I didn't get to experience the full effect of the piece. I wish it had subtitles! The most surprising part of this performance was that the woman didn't look uncomfortabe, but most of the audiance does. I didn't understand the purpose of this performance, I feel like it has something to do with feminism or maybe sexism.

So I did a little research on the video and found out that the name of the piece relates very much to what it means. On Media Art Net is says that:

"the film is ‘shown’ in the dark. But the cinema has shrunk somewhat – only two hands fit inside it. To see (i.e. feel, touch) the film, the viewer (user) has to stretch his hands through the entrance to the cinema. At last, the curtain which formerly rose only for the eyes now rises for both hands."

It also explains that the performance is about the sexual freedom of the woman:

"The tactile reception is the opposite of the deceit of voyeurism. For as long as the citizen is satisfied with the reproduced copy of sexual freedom, the state is spared the sexual revolution. ‘Tap and Touch Cinema’ is an example of how re-interpretation can activate the public'."