Holy Water (Performance)

Artist: Xiao Lu

Performance Time: early morning, 13 May, 2017

Location: Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy.

Materials: 27 blue acrylic plates (40 x 60 cm), a bottle of Moutai liquor,  7 white porcelain bowls and  a red dress

Exhibition: Venice Live 4, 9-13 May 2017

Curator: Jonas Stampe

Photography: Yi Zilei 

Performance Description:

Xiao Lu places 27 blue acrylic plates (40 x 60 cm) from east to west in a diagonal line in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, and pours a bottle of Moutai (53% alcohol) into 7 white porcelain bowls. She stands at one side of the blue line, raises a bowl of liquor and starts downing them one by one. After drinking the third bowl of Moutai, she begins to feel dizzy and falls to the ground. She cries out and crawls forward. By the fifth bowl, she starts rolling on the ground, and her piercing screams echo in the air over the Piazza San Marco.

About “Holy Water”

God turns the Holy Water into Moutai wine, resulting in the scene in the Piazza San Marco.

When Xiao Lu plunged into a canal in Venice in 2013, that was her spontaneous rendezvous with God, leading her to choose to have another dialogue with God. Facing Saint Mark’s Basilica, she devoutly raises her cup and downs the bitter sweetness in one gulp, and moved by the God of Wine, she roars and struggles in a hellish way.

Holy Water video ( Part )

Video: Loic Connanski

Edit: Xiao Lu