Rainer Ganahl, Bicycle Quartering, 1757/2007
performance
"Finally, he was quartered, ... this last operation was very long, because the horses used were not accusmed to drawing; consequently, instead of four, six were needed; and when that did not suffice, they were forced, in order to cutoff the wretch's thighs, to sever the sinews and hack at the joints ..." Gazette d'Amsterdam, 1757 in: Michel Foucault, Discipline @ Punish, The Birth of the Prison, 1977
For this performance, I was attached by rope to four or eight or even twelve bicycles which were trying to pull me into four pieces in the middle of a street crossing in downtown Manhattan blocking car traffic for a couple of mintues. This should be a reminder that torture is practiced today by the current Bush administration in relationship to their “war on terror” over resources that wouldn’t be needed if people used bicycles and not cars.
Performance site: intersection Stanton and Eldrige Street, Manhattan, November 16th, 2007 from 9 30 pm
courtesy Fruit and Flower Deli, New York
video to be posted soon
here: more back ground history for this kind of turture:
"Quartering may in truth be considered the most horrible penalty ever invented. This punishment dates from the remotest ages. In almost all cases, the victim had previously to undergo various accessory tortures: sometimes his right hand was cut off, and the mutilated stump was burnt in a cauldron of sulphur; sometimes his arms, thighs, or breasts were lacerated with red-hot pincers, and hot oil, pitch, or molten lead was poured into the wounds. After these horrible preliminaries, a rope was attached to each of the limbs of the criminal, one being bound round each leg from the foot to the knee, and round each arm from the wrist to the elbow. These ropes were then fastened to four bars, to each of which a strong horse was harnessed, as if for towing a barge. These horses were first made to give short jerks; and when the agony had elicited heart-rending cries from the unfortunate man, who felt his limbs being dislocated without being broken, the four horses were all suddenly urged on with the whip in different directions, and thus all the limbs were strained at one moment. If the tendons and ligaments still resisted the combined efforts of the four horses, the executioner assisted, and made several cuts with a hatchet on each joint. When at last, for this horrible torture often lasted several hours - each horse had drawn out a limb, they were collected and placed near the hideous trunk, which often still showed signs of life, and the whole were burned together. Sometimes the sentence was, that the body should be hung to the gibbet, and that the limbs should be displayed on the gates of the town, or sent to four principal towns in the extremities of the kingdom. When this was done, "an inscription was placed on each of the limbs, which stated the reason of its being thus executed. " (fromwww.middle-age.org.uk)
click images for hi res. picts... -(not the video stills)
video to be posted soon
video 7 min
video stills (HDVD) - camera Sarra Brill, edited Sarra Brill and Rainer Ganahl
