The Gao Brothers were invited to perform their signature World Hug Day in Rome last month. The inspiration for this huge cultural event is a performance piece they created in 1999 at a Beijing performance festival. In the late 1990s there was no Chinese Contemporary art market and many artists were using their physical bodies as their medium of expression.

There was a lot of pain and disillusionment from the Tiananmen Square incident and the strict government policies that followed, therefore most performance art at that time was filled with hatred. At the performance festival the artist before The Gao Brothers slaughtered a lamb for his art piece. The brothers then filled water guns with the lamb’s blood and shot themselves with it. At the end of the performance they were covered in blood. They then looked at each other and hugged for the very first time in their lives. They were profoundly moved by this gesture.

After this Embrace performance they were inspired to recreate the importance of that hug with a larger event in Shandong, their hometown, in 2000. They used the internet to spread the world about their project and how a embrace can combat the violence and hatred in the world. The Western World believed in their cause and after 2003, the year the brothers received their passports, they were invited by several countries to stage editions of World Hug Day.

Today they have performed editions of World Hug Day all over China, Europe and a few cities in East Asia and America. At the performances many participants are moved to tears. There are very few opportunities in life that one gets to feel the love that is generated from hundreds of strangers embracing. The Gao Brothers hope that each day, every person can take the time and embrace a loved one or stranger. That one simple gesture can change lives.

Youtube: The Utopia of Hugging for 20 Minutes
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