Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.11.2007, Síða 26
“The audience squirted ketchup on us, threw oat-
meal and dog food at us and screamed in anger.
We weren’t sure if they were trying to complement
our work or if they really hated it,” explains Morri,
one of three members of artist collective MOMS,
when discussing the group’s latest performance.
MOMS’ performance, entitled ‘Piss at Us’, was
part of the Artisit? art festival that took place in Gal-
way, Ireland last month. They got a huge space to
work in, invited some friends, including acclaimed
Austrian art group Gelitin, and built a large walk-
in sculpture out of scaffolding and other material
they found lying around. It took two days of intense
work to finish the masterpiece and decorate it with
handmade heads and penises, toilet paper and
ketchup bottles.
On the opening night, the audience crowded
the site. People walked around the sculpture while
throwing greasy stuff at the group of half-naked
artists who were trapped like animals in a fight pit
they had built the sculpture around. “In the end,
we started to piss on each other to keep us warm. I
mean, we were freezing,” American artist Schuyler
says. “This project was the most difficult I’ve ever
done. Both physically and mentally,” Morri contin-
ues. Mundi, the third MOMS member keeps draw-
ing on his wallet and nods in agreement.
Pissing at a New York Gala Dinner
MOMS is made up of Morri and Mundi, who met at
The Icelandic Academy of the Arts, and Schuyler,
who first moved to Iceland in 2005. The threesome
is known for going unconventional ways in their art
creations and have planned numerous events and
exhibited both in Iceland and abroad. Their most
recent project in Iceland was for the Sequences
Real-time art festival last month, where they put
up an exhibition on page 444 on RUV Teletext. The
exhibition was accessible to all TV owners in the
country who could view their art without even leav-
ing the living room couch.
The ongoing collaboration with aforemen-
tioned art ensemble Gelitin has brought MOMS
some international attention, for example at the
Venice Biennial in June this year. The crew ended
up shuttling people in a leaking homemade Viking
boat and competing in an international swimming
contest. They were all surprised to win.
Today, MOMS has become an important part
of the Gelitin group. “I guess we’re like their little
brother or something,” Schuyler says. When asked
how the collaboration came about Morri explains,
“In June 2006 one of our teachers asked us if we
wanted to work with Austrian artists who were to
exhibit at gallery Kling & Bang. We had no idea
who they were at that time. We met them at the
gallery, showed them our sketchbooks and these
really strange guys liked our work. We ended up
taking part in their performance, called ‘Hugris’.”
After the Kling & Bang adventure, the two art
groups kept in touch and in January this year Geli-
tin invited their kid-brothers to a party in New York.
They ended up assisting Gelitin at an arty gala
dinner in gallery Deitch Projects. With handmade
bucket hats on their heads and high heels on their
feet, the group flashed their genitals through holes
cut out of their tights while the dressed-up party
guests drank champagne and sampled fine dishes.
“The fancy arty people from New York sat at their
tables, eating and talking snobby about the exhibi-
tion. In the meantime we climbed into the air and
built a huge sculpture above their heads,” Morri ex-
plains. “In high heels!” Schuyler adds.
When the monstrous structure was finished,
the grand finale was about to shock some diners.
Standing in a row with the guests underneath
them, they peed in each other’s bucket hats. “It was
like a human fountain,” Morri continues: “After I
had finished, a really weird guy came up to me and
asked, “Is the pee for sale?” I told him we hadn’t
decided.”
MOMS’ involvement with Gelitin’s provoca-
tive performances has got them into plenty of weird
situations that usually involve stupidity, nudity, uri-
nating in public and some other crazy heat-of-the-
moment ideas. Why are they usually naked? “It’s
freeing,” they tell me.
The teamwork continues and in December
MOMS will fly off to Paris to do a show again with
Gelitin at the Paris Museum of Modern Art, sched-
uled to open in February. After that, the only plan
for MOMS is to keep working together for as long
as they can stand each other. “Me and Mundi have
even thought about marrying and adopting Schuy-
ler. I read in the paper that the church will be allow-
ing gay marriages, so we can finally do it! We are
thinking about having it like a performance,” Morri
concludes.
For more info on MOMS, see: www.moms.ms
Text by Steinunn Jakobsdóttir
The MOMS Parade
Our photographer caught a rare moment when
the MOMS group was actually all in the same
room, and still wearing clothes. Photo by GAS
B14 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 17 2007 | Interview
MOMS’ involvement with
Gelitin’s provocative per-
formances has got them
into plenty of weird situa-
tions that usually involve
stupidity, nudity, urinat-
ing in public and some
other crazy heat-of-the-
moment ideas. Why are
they usually naked?
What´s on? www.getrvk.com