Chris Burden

In his work Shoot (1971), Chris Burden used his own body in order to act out an extreme situation, in which a friend standing five meters away from him shot a bullet at his arm. Although the friend was instructed that the bullet should brush against the arm without hurting it, Burden's arm was injured. The artist thus blurred the boundaries between the representation of violence in the media and in cinema and actual violence. This act, which about ten people were invited to attend in a gallery space, transformed Burden into a controversial living myth.

Born in Massachusetts, 1946; lives and works in California