Exclusive | Park Avenue Armory bigwigs welcome raunchy art show displaying 12-foot penises by Marina Abramović — but want to evict cadets
The Park Avenue Armory has been attempting to clear out its long‑time youth cadet program for years, but it’s now ready to put on a highly debated show by performance artist Marina Abramović. The piece—titled Balkan Erotic Epic—showcases 12‑foot‑tall phalluses, scenes of open orifices, and women massaging their breasts “furiously.” The United States debut is set for next year in the Armory’s historic drill hall, a building managed by a non‑profit that critics claim functions more like an exclusive private club.
Adding to the controversy, Abramović sits on the Armory’s board of directors, a fact that many see as a blatant conflict of interest. The show itself, which opened in the UK last month, depicts what Abramović describes as a Balkan fertility ritual. In one segment, a groom drills three holes into a wooden bridge and inserts his penis, while five men lie face down, masturbating in a field of giant phalluses for the duration of the four‑hour performance. Another part shows seven women repeatedly exposing their vulvas to the sky in an attempt to stop the rain, while a group of naked people in a cemetery massages their breasts “while having a slow‑motion orgy with skeletons.”
One performer even tries to insert a small fish into her vagina to make her partner deepen his affection. Abramović herself makes a brief cameo during the event.
Critics have blasted the show as “a vainglorious, vacuous piece of schlock, riddled with soft‑porn cliches,” according to Alastair Sooke of The Telegraph. Yet the Armory remains enthusiastic. CEO Rebecca Robertson told ARTnews, “Balkan Erotic Epic makes you rethink taboos about how the body should work. I promise you, you will see what I mean when you see it.”
Tickets for the December 2026 performance are already on sale for $85. Local resident Jay Stallard voiced his concerns: “This doesn’t seem aligned whatsoever to what they committed to in terms of services that they’re supposed to provide to the community. I guess erotic art has its place, but what are they going to do? Bring poor kids from schools and let them enjoy this sort of performance? I find the organization personally repulsive. It seems like it’s their own personal social club.”
The Armory sits on Park Avenue and East 66th Street, a state‑owned military site that is the center of a legal battle between the Park Avenue Conservancy and a group of child cadets who have used a small room there for over a century. The Conservancy is pushing to evict the cadets, even though Governor Hochul recently signed a bill protecting the 150‑year‑old Knickerbocker Greys youth program.
While the Armory has not disclosed whether Abramović, who joined the board in 2012, receives compensation for her show, critics see the arrangement as a serious conflict of interest. “The grants that have been afforded to these people in the name of art are astronomical. And it’s not like a ticket to the naked lady show is going to bring in a gazillion dollars,” Stallard observed. The non‑profit has received $19.8 million in public funding since 2020 but spent $30.4 million on productions in 2023, resulting in only $11.4 million in revenue.
Abramović, Serbian‑born and 78 years old, first made headlines in 1974 when she let strangers act on her for six hours during a performance at a Naples gallery. The event quickly turned violent, with participants cutting up her clothing, sexually assaulting her, even biting her neck and drinking her blood while she remained stoic. One person pointed a loaded gun at her head. She has been embroiled in other scandals, such as the 2017 New York Post exposé “the art of the steal,” following her withdrawal from plans to convert an upstate building into an art center and questions about the whereabouts of $2.2 million in donations, as well as conspiracy theories that erupted after a 2016 WikiLeaks release of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, referencing her 1996 “Spirit Cooking” piece involving pig’s blood.
Despite the controversies, Abramović maintains her artistic identity: “I’m an artist, I’m not a satanist,” she told The Guardian, noting that people search for her to fit their conspiracies.
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