Rubbing shoulders with naked strangers at NYC museum causes discomfort

NEW YORK - A new exhibit in New York is causing discomfort among some visitors by bringing them too close to nude performers.

At the ‘Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present’, two live nude “performers”-alternating couples, opposite and same sex-who stand in a narrow doorway.

The exhibition will continue for the next two months.

The show also includes a nude performer lying underneath a skeleton and a naked woman perched on a bicycle seat.

However, the show has not gone down well with most of the New Yorkers.

“It didn’t feel normal. I’ve never walked between two naked guys like that before-not in public places,” the New York Post quoted Georgina Rovirosa, 26, an NYU grad student as saying.

Abramovic is a Yugoslavian-born provocateur who over the course of her art career has whipped herself, carved a pentagram into her abdomen and swapped jobs with a prostitute.

Many people found it understandable that New Yorkers-used to being shoved into tight spaces with complete strangers on a daily basis-would be intimidated by the experiment.

“You’re forced to be in close contact with so many people in New York, but everyone’s so distant. This is more intimate than you are with the people in your apartment building,” said Daniel Harvey, 23.

There were, however, some who enjoyed the experience.

“I didn’t realize I was moving [through] slowly. It’s two men! I certainly didn’t mind the closeness,” said actress Cady Huffman. (ANI)