Blood Coffee (2025)
Prologue
Blood Coffee will be served at the Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing
on November 15 and 16, 2025
— nine cups each day.
Curator Jacob invited boma pak to the exhibition
Setting the Tune of the Exhibition (Prologue Body).
boma pak bought white uniforms,
almond oil, essential oils,
brown and red dyes for the receptionist
and the Blood Coffee.
Also, white towels to wipe the spilled coffee.
The uniforms were ordered through Nav**,
but shipped from China.
She imagines the receptionist
spilling Blood Coffee in the museum,
making others spill it too,
wiping it up,
staining the white uniform,
and wondering what she is doing
in this unfamiliar place.
The coffee cups for Blood Coffee
were ordered from Taobao,
with help from Lea.
The receptionist prepares Blood Coffee
and lets visitors spill the red liquid on the lobby floor.
No one knows why the receptionist
prepares Blood Coffee.
The night before flying from
Gimpo Airport to Beijing,
she called the hotel to ask
if the swimming pool was open.
She likes to float alone.
But the hotel said the pool was not in service.
She arrives in Beijing on the morning
of November 13 at 10 a.m.
Characters
The receptionist
A person drinking coffee
A visitor who accidentally breaks a cup in the lobby
A person biting their lip in the Sandglass café
A dead pigeon
A person wiping blood
A person bleeding from the right index fingernail
A person chatting with others in the lobby with bloodstains
A person in a red blouson jumping from a building
A praying person in menstruation
A person eating Peking duck
A person cutting their hand with paper
A person dripping blood
Visitors stepping on the spilled blood and spreading it
A person floating in a hotel swimming pool
A person in joy
Act 1
(Fade in)
A noisy museum opening.
It’s already getting dark in November.
Warm air from the heater and cold air
from the door mix in the lobby.
(Pin light)
A person stands in the lobby drinking coffee.
They place the cup on a white saucer,
tear a red sugar packet,
pour it in, stir with a silver spoon,
smell the aroma,
and take one sip, then another.
(Fade out)
Act 2
(Fade in)
Inside the Sandglass Café in Beijing
A person sits on a dark brown velvet sofa,
drinking coffee.
She bites her lip hard until it bleeds.
(Fade out)
(Fade in)
Beijing city, sunset.
Sounds of cars, voices, and hollow air.
On the street block,
a pigeon lies bleeding, hit by a car.
On a bench across the road,
a person picks off a charm
from their phone case.
Their right index fingernail
lifts and blood seeps out.
(Fade out)
Act 3
(Fade in)
Museum lobby.
The receptionist in a white uniform
pours coffee for a visitor
and whispers something to them.
The visitor walks toward the lobby
holding the cup of coffee.
They glance back and exchange
eye contact with the receptionist.
Then they bump into another person,
drop the cup,
and the cup rolls on the floor.
The red coffee slowly spreads.
(Fade out)
Act 4
(Fade in)
The noisy museum opening.
— White light fills the entire space.
People walk around holding red wine and light snacks,
viewing the exhibition or talking with each other.
The receptionist, wearing
a blood-stained uniform, also talks with people
and from time to time wipes
the spilled blood on the floor.
As she gave the order and they received it.
(Fade out)
Act 5
(Fade in)
Evening. Blue air.
Cool and moist wind after rain.
City lights.
The receptionist walks down the street.
Inside a restaurant glowing in warm yellow light.
After work, feeling hungry,
the receptionist enters
a famous Peking duck restaurant.
They have never eaten Peking duck before.
A chef in a white coat skillfully
slices and plates the dish.
As they lift a piece of meat to their lips,
the restaurant manager, hurriedly reaching
into the drawer at the counter
to pick a sticky note,
cuts their finger on the paper’s edge
and sees the blood.
(Fade out)
Act 6
(Fade in)
Dawn.
Still dark and calm city air.
From the top of the China Zun building,
a person wearing a red blouson falls.
They fall smiling, with open arms.
They fall for a long time—
because the building is so tall.
The time itself protects them.
But while falling,
they transform through friction.
Like a phoenix landing with both feet on the ground,
they exist where they do not exist,
and do not exist where they are.
On the second day of her period,
a person on the way to work sees the body
and prays.
(Fade out with strong white light)
Act 7
(Fade in)
Afternoon, hazy sunlight.
Museum lobby.
A person sits on a wooden chair.
They dip their fingers in a cup beside them.
Five blood-stained fingers hang in the air.
The red liquid drops to the floor by gravity.
(Fade out)
(Fade in)
A group of visitors enters.
They do not notice the red drops on the floor.
They step on them.
The blood spreads.
The receptionist makes leaflets at the desk.
(Fade out)
Act 8
(Fade in)
A hotel swimming pool,
with a ceiling of windows and mirrors,
and loud yellow light reflections.
The smell of bleach.
A person floats on their back.
Through the ceiling windows, they see the sky.
Through the mirrors, they see themselves swimming.
They perceive the glittering yellow light
piercing through their eyes.
Underwater,
they hear their heartbeat and breathing.
(Fade out)
Act 9
(Fade in)
Warm sunlight, soft and clear air.
Lobby.
A person, their body burst and bleeding,
spreads blood across the lobby floor.
They roll on the ground; no one stops them.
They take the elevator to the third floor,
smear blood on the hallway windows,
in a state of ecstasy.
They splash the flowing blood
here and there,
and as they leave,
they press the traces left on their fingers
against the outer wall,
in jouissance.
(Fade out)
BLOOD COFFEE
2025
boma pak
This work presented at the exhibiton Setting the tone of the Exhibition(prologue body) curated by Jacob Fabricius, held at Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing.
