Poor Rapid City, South Dakota. They had no idea what they were getting into when they invited “performance artists” from France to participate in a local Arts Council event. Ick:

Two French performance artists’ nudity, simulated violence and sex acts, and use of faux-urine and feces, shocked the crowd and even the promoter at Dahl Arts Center on Wednesday.

After stripping off their grubby clothes, the pair gobbled potato chips and spit them on the crowd, vomited into a filthy commode and threw around fake feces and urine before being shut down about a half hour into what was to be a 45-minute performance.

Costes, a French performance art duo consisting of one 50-something man, Jean-Louis Costes, and a 20-something woman, Lisou Prout, were the fourth act of five scheduled to perform Wednesday at the Dahl.

The act consisted of choreography, singing, spoken word and acting set to a prerecorded soundtrack of loud music, noise and discordant sounds. It was all in French, but people who saw it said it was basically a depiction of American life from birth to death, portrayed in the most extreme way possible.

There were also plenty of “props.”

The last straw, apparently, was a simulated sex act involving a carrot.

Audience member Ben Lemay said he can safely say he has never seen anything like it in Rapid City, or anyplace in the Midwest for that matter.

“It was pretty much a show centered on shock value,” he said.

NEA grant, here they come…

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