GONDOLA HAPPENING. 1965.

Venice: s.p.,n.d.  (1965)

21.5 x 28cm, 1pp. The small publicity poster for the one day event where Paik and Moorman sailed out into the canal near the Ponte Rialto and (after a delay) played a piece by John Cage following which Moorman jumped into the water, and after surfacing, played a work by Paik while still dripping wet. Meanwhile a film was projected onto the nearest wall from a projector mounted on the gondola. Paik claimed later that Moorman had to have a typhus shot to avoid illness from the polluted waters of the canal. This is the very rare publicity sheet that was typographic in design with the title and details in Moorman’s facsimile hand and reproducing a quote from Cage (via Metzger) – ‘Venice is the most progressive city of the world, since it has already abolished the automobile.’  Fine. Rare.