38 Personen, Männer und Frauen, stehen paarweise über das Museum verteilt im Raum: nackt, stumm und ohne eine Miene zu verziehen. Dabei kommt es zu Handgreiflichkeiten, wie die Modelle und ein Sprecher des MoMA berichten. Besucher schubsen die Nackten und stecken sogar Finger in Körperöffnungen.
Trotz der Belästigungen dürfen sich die Modelle laut Vertrag nicht regen oder sprechen. Wird ein Grapscher erwischt, schreitet die Security ein. Die Künstlerin selber sitzt ebenfalls stundenlang stumm an einem Tisch im Museum: komplett angezogen. Die Ausstellung ist noch bis zum 31. Mai zu sehen.
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Naked-art exhibit draws 'touchy' crowd
Hands off the artwork!
Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art's eyebrow-raising new exhibit have been getting a little too grabby with the show's naked performers -- earning some the boot.
Female performers in Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present" have complained about groping, while other models say they have been pushed, prodded and poked.
Without giving specifics, MoMA yesterday acknowledged it had had trouble with visitors stroking the live art.
"We are well aware of the challenges posed by having nude performers in the galleries for this exhibition," the museum said.
"Any visitor who improperly touches or disturbs any of the performers is escorted from the museum by MoMA security."
PHOTOS: MOMA'S NEW NAKED-ART EXHIBIT
An unspecified number of patrons have been ejected for groping performers since the exhibit opened on March 14, but none has been arrested, and there have been no calls made to 911.
The exhibit features 38 performers in rotating shifts of eight facing each other at a doorway or lying under a skeleton or posing in other pieces, mostly in the nude.
One performer, Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, told The Post last week, "We have a way to let security know if we're having an emergency, but we're all prepared for discomfort. You just have to suck it up!"
She said the oddest thing she experienced since the retrospective of Abramovic's work began was seeing a man drop a scallion beside her as she lay under the skeleton.
"He said he wanted to add a little bit of life" to the work, Bonilla said.
Guards asked him to leave.
"It can be a little sketchy," said Matthew Rogers, 31, who teaches Pilates when he's not on display on the sixth floor. "Sometimes, there's that feeling like, 'Oh, this is a little gross,' and then it's gone."
He said he's also "definitely gotten pushed" at his post next to the door.
"Nothing aggressive, but sometimes people seem to think they have to enter and exit with force. Sometimes, people who are larger push past you, but you just step back into place," he said.
None of the models has been deterred by the public's antics at the exhibit.
All the performers went through a mini-boot camp at the artist's Hudson Valley hideaway in a bid to prepare for anything.
For five days, they led a monk-like existence -- fasting, not speaking and not reading -- while doing exercises designed to help them develop self-control, including bathing in an icy pond, walking in slow motion and counting grains of rice, said MoMA's Erica Papernik, whose job is to make the performers' rotations as smooth as possible.
A clothed Abramovic is also on display in the exhibit. Visitors can sit across from her.
Elke Luyten, a 35-year-old performer, called the show a welcome test of self-discipline, even if she occasionally cries while lying under the skeleton.
"I never feel awkward. I never feel strange," she said. "Even when teenagers laugh, I never feel laughed at. Because Marina is there on the second floor, you feel you're part of something bigger."
The show runs until May 31.
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