What just happened?

I'm writing this as an aide to understanding. I'm at a lost to think how I'd handle this if it happened to me and whilst I really don't want to condone his actions nor can I unthinkingly condemn then without getting bit more information and asking why?

For those who weren't there- during a performance of Spectacular by Forced Entertainment at the Arnolfini a man with a loud voice and a Russian accent, together with his female accomplice, repeatedly heckled the performers with negative comments about the show, and in the words of the woman with him- canned laughter.

At one point he was asked to leave, but refused and there was little that could be done. Arnolfini doesn't employ the sort of surly doorman that might be called in to effect an eviction.

Then almost at the very end of the show, after a brief exchange with one of the performers, he got on stage and harangued them with a manically melodramatic sense of 'rebellion against oppression', then turned to the audience, asking if they "...want to see something extraordinary?". Someone shouted Yes. So he dropped his trousers, shat in his hand, then rubbed the poo all over his face.

He ranted a bit, something about Stanislavsky, as he was politely asked to leave, which he did, shortly followed by his friend. The performers picked up the performance again in just about the most perfect way and the rest of the show was, in my opinion far better and more enjoyable for his absence.

Who was this man? After several careful re-wordings on the Internet's favourite search engine I got my answer and a short Wikipedia article to boot-
Alexander Davidovič Brener (Russian: Александр Бренер). In case you can't be bothered reading the following links, I'll condense- He's a performance artist from Russia, and he has disrupted/vandalised several events and works of art before, plenty of which have involved faeces.

ICA Interruption.

Gallery Intervention.

A letter in defence.

I guess that just leavse the why? It seems from his rather incoherent words and extreme actions that in the particular he was reacting against a perceived slight to his personal freedom to do whatever he likes wherever he likes, and that he wanted things to somehow be more than there were, only more in the sense of the Hollywood Blockbuster or the Arms Race, as applied to liberty. By which I mean More Freedom without any thought to the quality or effect of that freedom.

Yes our global society is a network of power exercised over individuals to limit their freedom so they can live more or less easily side by side and function as the batteries/cogs of the economy. But I don't see how hitting other folks' art with a hammer makes the world a better place or gives us any insight into the serious question of how can we dismantle/change the negative bits of this system without destroying the bits that work for our benefit.

Imagine the scene, Mr Brener is at a friends house...

Hey Alex do you want to play monopoly?
A:Yeah, ok, sure, monopoly.

A little later...

A: This game is rubbish.
Actually i'm enjoying it.
A: No it's rubbish, the rules are stupid. Don't you realise that there are rules? Rules are for idiots.
Maybe, but they make the game work.
A: Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish- This game is a microcosm of Capitalist society!
Duh, yeah, it's monopoly.
A: Fuck Monopoly.
Oh for goodness sake! Not again Alex.
A: NNNGGGGHHHHH* Ha! See how I shit all over the capitalist society with it's petite rules! I am a free man! See how free I am!?
*Sigh* Every time we try to play a game you end up shitting on the board.

By all means call out Yeltsin to fight you in Red Square- that seems like a worthy opponent. But maybe you need to think twice when you're attacking the soft target of contemporary art, and theatre in particular. I mean it's only children playing around, and after all, what's so wrong with that that it needs you crapping all over it?

I invite you to comment and discuss...