Performance Art: What Is It?

Leonardo, Vol. 14, p. 37. Pergamon Press, 1981. Printed in Great Britain. PERFORMANCE ART: WHAT IS IT? Klaus Groh* Performance art was begun by the futurists, for example by the visual artists Filippo Tomaso Marinetti, Giacomo Balla and Carlo Carra, who presented such events to audiences. Later the dadaists Tristan Tzara, Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters also presented such events. Years later, in the 1960s, the North American and European Happening and Fluxus artists (Allan Krapow , Dick Higgins, George Brecht, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys, Addi (Arthur) Kopke and Eric Anderson ) also produced Performance-art events [1]. More recently, this type of art has often become a basic input for Video art. Today it is the main means of expression of the new-dadaists to get more attention for their obsessions. Among these artists are Anna Banana, Bill Gaglione, Don Milliken, Buster Cleveland and Boyd Rice[2].(The new-dadaistsare not tobeconfused withthe neo-dadaists. The latter label has been applied to artists who paint banal subjects or incorporate industrial refuse into their works [3]. In Performance art familiar daily activities of people in industrial societies are presented in a rather unsophisticated theatrical way with every-day objects as props, and individual demonstrations of an artist's ego are supposed to be avoided [4]. Furthermore, these activities generally deal with unexpected or with unusual situations. Thus, a bathroom might be presented on stage in which toenail-cutting is carried out; a discourse on aerodynamics might accompany the making of a toy paper airplane and the fall to the floor of the toy airplane may be accompanied by a recorded simulated noise of a crash of a real airplane [5]. Usually, a stage is not used, an event being performed in the midst of an audience. Performance art should not be likened to television productions meant for entertainment [6]. Nor can it be considered to be like Happenings, because the audi- *Artist, Roter Steinweg 14, D 2905 EdewechtFriedrichsfehn , Fed. Rep. Ger. (Received 13 Dec. 1979) 37 ence does not participate in an active way. Yet, the events are considered as serious and educative. Although they are often presented in the sense of fun, they are meant to cause spectators to 'look into themselves ' by making them acutely conscious of aspects of time, sounds, language, thought processes, human daily needs, feelings, habits and traditions by means of shock tactics. Some artists hope by means of Performance art to cause spectators to change their life routines. In Performance art, artists know only their aims, and they generally attempt to achieve them by improvisation , taking into account a particular audience, the location of an event and the props selected. Evidently, a performance cannot be repeated in the manner of a scripted theatre performance. Performance-art events are often recorded on video tape. But, in a broad sense, a 'performing' artist and an audience are expected to interact mentally, and, of; course, this interaction is difficult to describe with assurance. What leads visual artists to desert painting and sculpture for Performance art is an interesting sociological question. Perhaps it is the result of desperation over what they consider a lack of adequate interest in their first chosen occupation. References 1. H. Osborne, Aesthetic Implications of Conceptual Art, Happenings, etc., Brit. J. Aesthetics 20.1 (1980). 2. K. Groh, Der neue Dadaismus in Nordamerika (Augsburg , Maro 1979 pp. 48-100). 3. J. A. Walker, Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design since 1945 (London: Clive Bingley, 1973). 4. A. Ciriel, et al., The Art of Performance, Theory and Criticism (Int. Assoc. Art Critics, CAYC, Buenos Aires) (No.2, 1979). 5. R. L. Goldberg, Performance: Live Art, 1909 to the Present (London: Harry N. Abrams, 1979.) 6. V. U. Eco, Dos offene Kunstwerk, (Frankfut/M: Suhrkamp , 1977) pp. 174-210. ...