Artist who performed nude in 2010 Marina Abramovic exhibition sues MoMA over sexual assault claims
A performer who appeared naked in a show by world-renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic is suing New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, saying it failed to take action after he was sexually assaulted multiple times by attendees during performance...
ALBANY, N.Y. — A performer who appeared naked in a show by world-renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art is suing the museum, saying it failed to take action after he was sexually assaulted multiple times by attendees during the performances nearly 14 years ago.
The suit was filed in Manhattan on Monday under the New York Adult Survivors Act, a special state law that created a yearslong suspension of the usual time limit for accusers to sue. Although the law expired last year, the suit says the parties agreed to extend the window closing.
John Bonafede alleges in the suit that he was sexually assaulted by five public onlookers who attended a show he was hired by the museum to perform in as part of Abramovic’s retrospective “The Artist Is Present.”
Email messages sent to the museum this week were not returned. Abramovic is not named as a defendant and did not immediately return a request for comment.
The work, titled “Imponderabilia,” saw Bonafede and another performer standing face-to-face with each other in a doorway about 18 inches (45.7 centimeters) apart, fully nude, silent, and still. The exhibition, which ran from March 14, 2010 through May 31, 2010, was curated by the museum in a way that encouraged visitors to pass in between the performers as they went from one gallery to the next, the suit alleges.
The people who assaulted Bonafede were mostly older men, the suit says. One of the perpetrators was a corporate
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