Vito Acconci Movies

"Acconci caresses his torso, then crushes cockroaches into his stomach and rubs them into his skin." - Electronic Arts Intermix

The screen is empty: the artist stands off-screen — he breathes in and out, his stomach moving into and out of the frame.

In Theme Song, Acconci uses video as close-up to establish a perversely intimate relation with the viewer, creating a personal space in which to talk...

In Two Track, Acconci experiments with direct and peripheral perception of information in the context of communication and interaction. He sits with...

"Visions of a Disappearance is a newly restored performance tape that was recorded in Naples, Italy, in 1973. Crouched in a corner, hemmed in by the...

In Conversions II, the second in a trilogy of films interrogating the rigidity of gender binarism, the artist attempts to feminize his unquestionably...

Vito Acconci

"In this now infamous tape, exemplary of his early transgressive performance style, Acconci sits and relates a masturbatory fantasy about a girl...

"Acconci spars with his close-up image in a mirror. He then breaks the mirror, destroying his image." - Electronic Arts Intermix

A super-8mm document (blown up to 16mm) of Acconci's performance of the same name where he laid flat on his stomach blindfolded on a wood platform in...

The two-channel piece Remote Control is an exercise in manipulation and control between artist and subject, male and female. On separate channels,...

A documentation of a live performance at New York University, Pryings is a graphic exploration of the physical and psychological dynamics of...

Steeped in black humor, this concise political critique is Acconci's contribution to artist Jenny Holzer's collaborative Sign on a Truck project,...

A woman kisses Acconci's body, covering him in red lipstick traces. Acconci then rubs his body against another man (Dennis Oppenheim), transferring...

A super-8mm short by Vito Acconci

This early document is a videotaped interview ("videoview") of Vito Acconci by Willoughby Sharp during which they discuss Acconci's development as an...

In Face of the Earth, Acconci's face becomes a metaphorical theater for a narrative drama of the mythic American landscape. Eyes closed, his face...

In this performance based tape, Acconci uses his body to explore notions of opening and closure.

Standing alone among beach dunes, Acconci begins to kick at the sand below him. Over the course of the film's ten minutes, this repeated action...

Acconci imitates the sounds of war, gunfire and explosion; he thrusts his face, stomach or penis onto the screen. His childlike battle sounds are...