Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)

Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) (2014–2015) was a work of endurance/performance art which Emma Sulkowicz conducted as a senior thesis during the final year of a visual arts degree at Columbia University in New York City.

Begun in September 2014, the piece involved Sulkowicz carrying a 50-pound (23 kg) mattress, of the kind that Columbia uses in its dorms, around campus. Sulkowicz said the piece would end when a student Sulkowicz alleged raped her in her dorm room in 2012 was expelled or otherwise left the university. Sulkowicz carried the mattress until the end of the spring semester, as well as to the graduation ceremony in May 2015.

Fellow student Paul Nungesser, whom Sulkowicz accused, was found not responsible by a university inquiry into the allegations, and police declined to pursue a criminal complaint against him, citing a lack of reasonable suspicion. Nungesser called Sulkowicz's accusation "untrue and unfounded" and called Mattress Performance an act of bullying. In 2015, Nungesser filed a lawsuit against the university and several administrators alleging that the school exposed him to gender-based harassment by allowing Mattress Performance to go forward. In 2017, the university settled the suit for undisclosed terms, and pledged to reform its disciplinary policies.

The piece stirred controversy with praise from art critics and criticism from some commentators. Art critic Jerry Saltz called Mattress Performance "pure radical vulnerability" and one of the best art shows of 2014. Journalist Emily Bazelon described the work and events surrounding it as "a triumph" for the survivor movement and "a nightmare" for the accused. Caught between defending and enabling Sulkowicz's freedom of expression and Nungesser's right to due process and the university's written policies regarding confidentiality, the university was criticized by both parties and their parents for its handling of the issue.