An Attempt at Identification, homage to Jerman 2019

On 19 November 1979 I carried out, together with Jerman, my first performance, my first public appearance and my first participatory performance, entitled An Attempt at Identification, in the now cult Podroom Gallery.

We stamped the word JA (meaning me) on each other’s bare bodies. We pressed our bodies closely together in an embrace, the words merged and became smudged and illegible. We washed the smudges off and again stamped JA. In 2006, Jerman left us.

In 2019 I came up with the idea to do a performance-happening in the spirit of that distant time in the same gallery, together with an audience, and dedicate the event to Jerman.

The performance was very straightforward.

There was a stamp with the word JA. I asked the audience to try to identify one another. All they had to do was press the stamp on a part of someone else’s body. I stamped a part of someone’s body, which I chose, and a person in the audience then stamped a part of my body that they chose. – Vlasta Delimar