Ensemble: Chapter 6: Perfect Death, 1974–1997, Brussels-Amsterdam-Antwerp-Cologne-Caïro / Hoofdstuk 6: Perfecte dood / Chapitre 6: Mort parfaite

After ‘question’ came ‘perfect’, a word that Byars first used in the titles The Perfect Love Letter is to Write I Love You Backwards in the Air and The Perfect Kiss in Brussels (1974). This kiss was still closely related to Byars’s participatory plays where he gave directions, but after a while his performances became more austere one-man plays. The Perfect Kiss in Antwerp (1976) was a brief kiss in the air with the tinniest movement of the lips, which could be performed anywhere, anytime.
The performances gradually became more theatrical, until Byars performed his own death at Galerie des Beuax-Arts of Marie-Puck Broodthaers (1994). While a violinist plays Béla Bartók’s Marche funèbre, Byars enters a room entirely lined in gold leaf, lies down for a minute and leaves. After this five diamonds are positioned to symbolise Byars’s body: Five Points Make a Man.
Werken
Selfportrait, 1959
James Lee Byars
Other, painted wood, black paper ball (in six parts), 161.5 x 33 x 199 cm
Performance James Lee Byars, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1974
Philippe De Gobert
Video, black and white video, 00:17:22
Halo around the ICC, Antwerp, 1976
James Lee Byars
Other, white paper, 29.5 x 21 cm
Documentary photographs of 'The Extra-Terrestrial' at Essen University, 1976
Photography, black and white photographs, 7 x
Documentary photographs of 'Extra-Terrestrial' action in Antwerp, 1976
Photography, black and white photographs, 13 x
Extra-Terrestrial, ICC Antwerp, 1976
James Lee Byars
Miscellaneum, one-page catalogue, white paper in black cover, 29.5 x 21 cm, 29.5 x 42.5 cm
The Perfect Kiss, Antwerp 1976, 1976
James Lee Byars
Other, paper, 29.5 x 21 cm
The Shadow of an Extraterrestrial Man/The Antwerp Giant, 1976
James Lee Byars
Installation, black tulle, 17 x 245 m
The 100 Images Are in One Second, 1979
Chris Goeyvaerts
Video, colour, sound, 00:18:00
The Tomb of James Lee Byars, 1986
James Lee Byars
Object, globe consisted of lime sand brick, 100 x 100 x 100 cm
Tribute to the New Generation, 1991
James Lee Byars
Object, a disc of golden cardboard, with an embossed spiral on one side, Ø 1.8 cm
The Death of James Lee Byars, Brussels, 1994
Unknown
Video, 00:13:00
Untitled, 1994
James Lee Byars
Object, glass and paper, ⌀ 100 cm