The German artist Alexander Karle is in hot water for making a film which showed him performing 27 press ups on a church altar. The piece, entitled Pressure to Perform, was shot in the Catholic Saint John church in Saarbrücken, southwest Germany, late 2015. Karle insists that he made the film “in the name of art” and is fighting for freedom of expression, adding that the work was not anti-religious (the artist even screened the controversial footage on YouTube and can be seen politely wiping the altar before departing). But magistrates at the city court of Saarbrücken were not amused and ruled earlier this week that the acrobatic aesthete must pay a fine of €700 (judge Judith Simon pulled no punches, declaring that Karle “had crossed a line”). According to our sister paper Le Journal des Arts, Karle is planning to appeal.
