UbuWeb’s tweet about Nam June Paik’s music reminds me it’s long past time to post this hilarious story of Paik’s 1965 Fluxus-style performance in Reykjavik, where he and Charlotte Moorman nearly capsized Iceland’s nascent new music movement. Artnews.is quotes a morning-after review of the scandalous concert:
“The Korean played the piano with a pacifier in his mouth, smeared himself in foam, splashed around in a washtub full of water and drank water from his shoe … The woman played the cello and then climbed up into an barrel and disappeared into it. A while later she came out of the barrel, soaking wet, and started playing the piano again. At that point the Korean dropped his pants on stage…
And then things really got out of hand.
Nam June Paik Shocks Icelandic Audience in 1965 [artnews.is]