Rebecca Horn / Cutting Hair & Oasis

Rebecca Horn
1974/75 Berlin (10 Nov. 1974 -- 28 Jan. 1975) -- Exercises in nine parts
"Cutting one's hair with two pairs of scissors simultaneously."
"When a woman and her lover lie on one side looking at each other; and she twines her legs around the man's legs with the window wide open, it is the oasis."
In the first part of this final performance in the series, the actor Otto Sander reads out a passage of text. In the second part, Rebecca Horn cuts her hair. The simultaneity of her two hands' actions, the metallic clipping of scissors, and her resolute stare into the camera heighten the atmosphere of menace.
The Text of Otto Sander:
Tongues flickering, their heads move back and forth until the scaly skin beneath the throat is touching. The instant physical contact is established, they begin to entwine. The aggressive fighting dance of the two partners is characterized by a gradual, mutual loss of momentum and the beating against each other of their forebodies. The jerkily undulating bodies wind so tightly round each other that the two snakemen merge into a single body whose two heads move back and fro in parallel. The fight is decided when the stronger animal has pressed his opponent down against the floor.