ARTIST’S COMMENTARY:

A washbowl with water, a pink soap bar, and a nail brush have been placed on a stool. In the back there hangs a clothes line with pegs. I enter, dressed in pink, carrying a pink towel and two gloves, one black, the other white.

I sit on a chair in front of the bowl and put on the gloves. I start to pedantically wash my gloved hands, including using the nail brush. After some time I get up, remove the gloves, wring them, and dry my hands with the towel. Then I hang the towel, which has the word “Performance” written on it, on the clothes line using the pegs, flanked by the gloves. I cross out the word “Performance” with white paint.

At that time, I thought I was doing my last performance.

Maria Pinińska-Bereś, “Akcje” (action descriptions no. 6), manuscript, ca. 1995