The fear of death is probably the biggest and most existential form of discomfort we know. Martin O’Brian examines the fascination and horror from a very specific lived experience as a zombie with cystic fibrosis. And the freak show has always been a way for everyone to better master life.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

The grim reaper stood there, finally I saw him. His skeletal form sparkled in the moonlight and nothing else existed. This was the deal. He reached out and wrapped his cold, bone hand around my skull. I was lost in the darkness of his cape. He drew me near and kissed me. He tasted like death, and I loved it.

In ‘An Ambulance to the Future (The Second Chance)’, Death pays a man for sex. The price is immortality.

Mixing video, live performance action and parables, the work paints the picture of life lived over and over again, a life that doesn’t need water or oxygen, a life without the promise of an end point. It is a meditation on endings and new beginnings. With his usual intensity and wit, this work continues Martin O’Brien’s explorations of the politics of death by asking what the idea of immortality can help us understood about being mortal.

‘An Ambulance to the Future (The Second Chance)’ premiered at Whitechapel Gallery in May 2023 and was presented as part of Martin O’Brien’s year as ‘Writer-in-Residence’.

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ABOUT MARTIN O’BRIEN (UK)

Martin O’Brien is an artist and zombie. He works across performance, writing and video art. His work uses long durational actions, short speculative texts and critical rants, and performance processes in order to explore death and dying, what it means to be born with a life shortening disease, and the philosophical implications of living longer than expected. He has shown work throughout the UK; Europe; USA; and Canada, and is well known for his solo performances and collaborations with the legendary LA artist and dominatrix Sheree Rose. His most recent works were at Tate Britain in 2020, and the ICA (London) in 2021. He is winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Visual and Performing Arts 2022. He is Writer-in-Residence at Whitechapel Gallery throughout 2023. Martin has cystic fibrosis and all his work and writing draws upon this experience. In 2018, the book ‘Survival of the Sickest: The Art of Martin O’Brien’ was published by Live Art Development Agency. His work has been featured on BBC radio and Sky Arts television. Martin O’Brien is currently senior lecturer in Live Art at Queen Mary University of London.

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ABOUT WAREHOUSE9

Warehouse9 (WH9) is a multidisciplinary arts and performance organisation based in Copenhagen (DK) that supports the development and presentation of work and ideas by LGBTQIA+ artists and cultural practitioners. By supporting radical and innovative arts practices and ideas, Warehouse9 nurtures new thinking, unique collective experiences and community building. We’re an organisation that strives towards sustainable processes and accessibility in the arts, and creates space for queer art year round. In the spring of 2024, Warehouse9 will open a workshop for performing arts in Vanløse, where we have our administration and develop our programs, which unfold around Copenhagen.

MANAGING DISCOMFORT PERFORMANCEFESTIVAL

In the spring of 2024, Toaster and Live Art Denmark present the performance festival MANAGING DISCOMFORT, which includes a number of Danish and international artists whose works have the common denominator that they all deal with discomfort, but process it with care and humor.

The festival stretches over seven weeks and each week two new performances are presented, which are staged as a double-bill at Husets Teater. This means that one ticket gives access to both performances, which are separated by a short break.