Just like Maria Abramovic´, Ria Pacquée (1954, Merksem) pushes her body to the limit for her performance art. A good example of this is Rückkehr Unerwünscht: in 1980 the artist locked herself away in a chapel in Bilzen, had herself hung from the ceiling by ropes and wrote the letters ‘RU’ on the wall, with blood from her throat. The letters stand for ‘Rückkehr Unerwünscht’, in other words ‘Return Undesirable’, and refer to the stamps the condemned souls were tattooed with on their way to the concentration camps under Hitler.
Live action / performance: Ria Pacquée delivers a performance at the Sint-Jozefkerk
Rückkehr Unerwünscht, 1980

RIA PACQUÉE
Albert I-promenade 75, 8400 Oostende