The day Gilbert & George entered a song to the glory of drunkards and tramps<

They then repeated it countless times, at the Nigel Greenwood gallery in 1970, then all over the world until the 90s. À cette époque, les deux étudiants, George Passmore et Gilbert Prousch s’appellent encore George et Gilbert – quelques années plus tard, ils inversèrent leurs prénoms et devinrent Gilbert&George.Entitled Singing Sculptures, performance stages them dressed in strict and buttoned costumes, short hair - very opposition to the hippie style in force at that time.The “laws of sculpture» singing sculptures, written by them, also include four points, the first of which is: “To be always elegantly dressed, well -capped, very neat, relaxed, friendly, polished and a perfect mastery ofself.»

For this sculpture-performer, they have their face painted in gold and silver.One carries a glove, the other a cane.They are standing on a table, dancing in a robotic way and singing to the sound of a tape recorder that diffuses Underneath the arches, a popular catching up from the 1930s who speaks of drunkards and tramps happy with their fate. À chaque reprise de la chanson, les deux artistes qui n’en font qu’un (“Il y a des artistes qui collaborent, pas nous») échangent le gant et la canne.At the start, the performance lasted a few minutes, the song being replayed two or three times, then it sometimes stretched in a spectacular way: during an exhibition at the Kunsthalle de Düsseldorf, they reproduced this performance for eight non-stop hours,two days in a row.

During an interview in 1997, they declared: "I do not know how this idea of a singing and dancing sculpture came to us, but we understood that we could produce a work of art of great intensity.It was very depressing, the movements were really sad, but everyone felt strangely enriched by experience, the children were fascinated, the old ladies were crying...» L’année où le duo créa Singing Sculptures, il proposa à la Tate Gallery de Londres une œuvre en forme de crèche dans laquelle ils auraient joué les rôles de Joseph et de Marie.They had already contacted the spa to get a donkey, a lamb and an ox, when their proposal was rejected.