Emma Sulkowicz uploads performance video of rape, website attacked

Jaleesa Jones | college.usatoday.com

Emma Sulkowicz – the Columbia University graduate who made headlines for her protest art criticizing the school’s handling of her alleged sexual assault – has released a new performance piece, according to artnet News.



RELATED: Columbia University student to carry mattress until alleged rapist leaves campus

The eight-minute video, titled “Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol” -- French for “This is Not a Rape” -- features Sulkowicz and an anonymized male actor having seemingly consensual sex in a dorm room. But the act soon turns violent as the actor chokes and slaps Sulkowicz, removes his condom and penetrates her against her will.

Directed by Ted Lawson, the video can be viewed here and is prefaced with a trigger warning: “The following text contains allusions to rape. Everything that takes place in the following video is consensual but may resemble rape.”

In an accompanying text to the video, Sulkowicz said: “‘Ceci N'est Pas Un Viol’ is not about one night in August, 2012” – the night Sulkowicz says she was raped by a fellow Columbia student.

She instead explains: "It’s about your decisions, starting now. It’s only a reenactment if you disregard my words. It’s about you, not him.”

Sulkowicz then provides a framework of questions to challenge viewers' interpretation of and motive behind watching the piece: “Do you desire pleasure? Do you desire revulsion? Is this to counteract your unconscious enjoyment? What do you want from this experience?” and “Are you searching for proof? Proof of what? Are you searching for ways to either hurt or help me?”



RELATED: Posters on, around Columbia campus dub Emma Sulkowicz a 'pretty little liar'

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Jaleesa Jones is a summer 2015 USA TODAY College intern and a recent alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.