Cannibal Cafe
Performance video, 1 hour, 2006
Camera: John Alston
Computer: Gray Genkins
Participants: Aaron Delehant, Kevin Copps, Rich, Shalo, Ricardo, Brice, Alfonso
This project is a simultaneous video production and art opening. During the two hour reception of my show opening, myself and others created simultaneously digitized and edited the video. The narrative of the video appropriates news articles about Meiwes, known in the news media as the Rotenburg Cannibal. He provoked one of the most controversial court cases in Germany because Meiwes found his willing victim through an Internet advertisement, killed him and ate his body over a few months.
The changing performers in the Cannibal Cafe video were walk-in gallery attendees and people from a “Cannibal Cafe Open Casting Call” posted on the Internet prior to the show. People who attended the event improvised performances and dialogues based on several simple scenarios provided to them with the goal of being awarded $50 cash for best performance.
*Transcription of Conversation
*Blog post about the project