Michel Journiac

Michel Journiac's actions (1935-1995) are unique works and have never been repeated (except for the first, Mass for a body, 1969). Only photographs, films or videos testify to their existence.

"Race d’Ep!" (which literally translates to "Breed of Faggots") was made by the “father of queer theory,” Guy Hocquenghem, in collaboration with radical queer filmmaker and provocateur Lionel Soukaz. The film traces the history of modern homosexuality through the twentieth century, from early sexology and the nudes of Baron von Gloeden to gay liberation and cruising on the streets of Paris. Influenced by the groundbreaking work of Michel Foucault on the history of sexuality and reflecting the revolutionary queer activism of its day, "Race d’Ep!" is a shockingly frank, sex-filled experimental documentary about gay culture emerging from the shadows.

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An "action" by Michel Journiac, performed at the book fair on March the 16th, 1993, where he exhibited 150 poems marked with his own blood. Michel Journiac had a blood sample taken in public and then spread the blood on three plexiglass plaques on which Fernando Pessoa's words were written : "Outside all this, there is Christ, who knew nothing about finance - and, it seems, didn't have a library". The works were then attached to a background and exhibited before the public.

Action for Michel Journiac.

An action which took place in 1983 at the National Museum of Modern Art (Centre Georges Pompidou), during which Michel Journiac stages a dramatic ritual and publicly brands himself on the arm with a red-hot iron triangle, the mark of the outcast.

Bernard Roué records an exhibit of Michel Journiac's piece of the same name.

In "Messe pour un corps", Michel Journiac organizes a real religious service and makes the participants receive communion with a black pudding made from his own blood.

Dressed as a virgin mother, Michel Journiac tears down his garment and reveals a rag doll tied to his belly. He frees it carefully, presses it against his heart and caresses it gently, then he smears it with blood and stuffs it with raw meat dripping with blood. Finally, he wraps it slowly in a white shroud, he buries it, then collapses to the ground, overcome by grief. This action took place without an audience and was prepared with a screenplay.