Claim Excerpts (1971)

A documentation of one of Acconcis most notorious performances Claim Excerpts is a highly confrontational work an exercise in selfinduced heightened behavioral states and an aggressive psychological exploration of the artistviewer relationship During the threehour performance Acconci sat in the basement of 93 Grand Street in New York blindfolded armed with metal pipes and a crowbar His image was seen on a video monitor in the upstairs gallery space Staking claim to his territory he tries to hypnotize himself through language into an obsessive state of possessiveness