Performance artists strike again

Tate Modern is home to the latest target - the Fountain

A pair of artists, who sprung to notice by bouncing on an unmade bed entered for the Turner Prize, say they have struck again.

Yuan Cai and Jian Ji Xi claim they urinated over one of the new Tate Modern gallery's exhibits to "celebrate the spirit of modern art."

Yuan Cai: Bouncing on Tracey's Bed

Their target was Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a ready-made urinal which itself shocked the art world when it was unveiled in 1917.

The men say they have video footage of their most recent "performance" which shows them standing either side of the Fountain, urinating for a minute in front of bemused onlookers.

"The aim of the exercise was to make people re-evaluate what constitutes art itself and how an act can be art," said Katie Hill, a spokeswoman for the men.

No security

She said Mr Cai and Mr Xi, from London, intended to "broaden the context of the iconic urinal", celebrating the spirit of modern art.

"There were no security guards and they just got away with doing it," she said.

A spokeswoman at the Tate Modern's information desk said she had no knowledge of such an incident taking place.

Mr Cai, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and Mr Xi, who studied art at Goldsmiths College, were arrested last year after they stripped down to their underpants and jumped up and down on Tracey Emin's work My Bed at the Tate Gallery in the name of artistic expression.

The pair, whose offering was entitled Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey's Bed, managed to express themselves for 15 minutes before they were apprehended by security guards and arrested.

They were later released without charge on the wishes of Ms Emin and the gallery.

Ms Emin's latest work features a urine-soaked sheet inspired by a childhood bedwetting episode.