Cuban Artist Strips Naked, Covers Self in Rocks at University to Protest American Culture

Cuban artist Carlos Martiel visited the University of Texas at Dallas Artists Residency to showcase his presentation Ruins.

In Ruins, Martiel strips naked and lies on a floor. He then has two white people cover him in rocks “until [his] body becomes invisible.”

Ruins “looks at the extermination of American indigenous populations and land by dominant Western Culture,” according to Martiel:

Martiel has since performed in several works, all of which included full nudity.

In Suspect, “an individual uses different police procedures on me that are used to intercept and subdue suspects, such as, frisking, disarmament and immobilization.”