MILO MOIRE goes to Basel

*Warning: PIRATE RADIO presentation*

Milo Moire.
Photo: Twitter.

 

Milo Moiré brought her naked performance art to the people in Basel Wednesday.

In a public square a few minutes from the Art Basel fair during the second day of VIP previews, posing in just sneakers with smiling locals, Moiré performed her latest piece, Naked Selfie. The performance artist was previously known for a piece in which she dropped paint-filled eggs from her vagina.

"This isn't just for the elite," the artist's associate, Peter, explained to artnet News. "That's why we're doing it here."

It might also have had something to do with last year, when a denuded Moiré, with the names of items of clothing written on her exposed skin, was turned away from the convention center (see Art Basel Turns Away Nude Performance Artist).

"The fair was too crowded!" Moiré, wearing only pink running shoes, told artnet News on the Barfüsserplatz (Barefoot Square), outside Basel's History Museum, in between photo shoots. She had visited the previous day—fully clothed—but bailed out after a couple of hours.

Locals shopped and ate lunch at restaurants on the place as the artist set her camera on a tripod, still wearing a white tank top and cutoff shorts, under the watchful eye of a gaggle of cameramen and video crews. When she had the camera ready, she casually stripped down to her sneakers.

"Who wants to pose for a selfie with me?" she asked the crowd after a few wolf whistles while she disrobed. After an awkward moment, she asked, "What, is everyone shy now?"

Milo Moire stands with a camera crew at Art Basel.
Photo: Brian Boucher.

Soon enough, some hearty souls stepped up. Moiré playfully put her arms around the guys in their T shirts and jeans, grinning and flashing thumbs-up gestures as the shutter clicked. She obligingly crouched a bit when a smaller man—she's tall and statuesque—reached up to shoot a photograph from above.

Some of them basked in their moment in the sun as local television news camera crews interviewed them. Moiré then asked a camera crew to pose with her, resulting in the ultimate "selfie snake eating its own tail" moment.

Milo Moire stands with a viewer of her latest piece, Naked Selfie.
Photo: Brian Boucher.

The takers were all men, artnet News observed. When this writer dutifully submitted to a picture, Moiré asked for a "cool" pose—turned sideways, arms crossed, back to back.

The work, naturally, aims to comment on self-exposure in a social media age. We all reveal ourselves constantly on Facebook and Instagram, says Moiré, showing where we are, with whom, and what we're doing. These images are often chosen for their self-flattering quality, of course, and Moiré unsubtly matches the selfie addict's immodesty with her own.

Even so, the point may have been a bit lost on the grinning dudes, who just seemed thrilled to touch a woman with a slender figure worthy of a lingerie model.

Many even shot selfies with their phones while Moiré snapped away with her remote-controlled camera, doubtless immediately posting them, submerging her commentary in the endless digital flow.