20. The Onion

An (video)artwork of Marina Abramović called The Onion (1996).

Here you can watch a fragment and read some more information about the work.

Here you can read an extended interpretation.

"The explicit symbolism of the star is now replaced by the less disturbing, but also less readable, image of an onion."

"If the star was an obvious (perhaps too much?) symbol, why to opt for an onion? Obviously eating an onion is an unequivocal physical gesture, experienced by everyone, in which taste is quickly transformed into disgust, a disgust that is easily shared by the viewer."

Here you can read another article.

"She chomps down voraciously on the onion, declaiming as she eats that she is "tired" of many things - taking planes, waiting for things, making decisions, pretending to be interested in conversations about art at openings and "being ashamed of my nose being too big, of my ass being too large, ashamed about the war in Yugoslavia"."

In this video Abramović is talking about the necessity of onions (and garlic).

"This (onion) is absolutely saving my life."

You can find several reanctments of the performance.
Here, here, here and here.