Performance art

Performance art is an artistic discipline or exhibition characterized by actions performed by the artist or other participants. It can be experienced live or via documentation, and may be spontaneously conceived or meticulously scripted, typically presented to an audience within a fine art framework, often adopting an interdisciplinary approach. Also referred to as artistic action, it has evolved over time into a distinct genre where artistic expression is delivered in real-time. This form played a crucial and foundational role in 20th-century avant-garde artistic movements.

Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a public in a fine art context in an interdisciplinary mode. Also known as artistic action, it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live. It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant-garde art.

This art form encompasses five fundamental components: time, space, the body, the artist's presence, and the dynamic between the artist and the audience. While frequently staged in art galleries and museums, these performances can occur in diverse settings, spaces, and temporal contexts. The primary objective is to elicit a response, often facilitated by improvisation and a deliberate aesthetic sensibility. Common thematic elements include the artist's personal experiences, the imperative for social critique or denunciation, and an underlying drive for transformative change.

Although the practice of performance within visual arts traces its origins to Futurist productions and cabarets of the 1910s, the terms "performance art" and "performance" gained widespread currency during the 1970s. In 1969, art critic and performance artist John Perreault attributed the coinage of the term to Marjorie Strider. Key pioneers of performance art encompass Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramović, Ana Mendieta, Chris Burden, Hermann Nitsch, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Tehching Hsieh, Yves Klein, and Vito Acconci. More contemporary prominent exponents include Tania Bruguera, Abel Azcona, Regina José Galindo, Marta Minujín, Melati Suryodarmo, and Petr Pavlensky. This discipline is conceptually connected to the happenings and "events" associated with the Fluxus movement, Viennese Actionism, body art, and conceptual art.

Definition

The precise definition and the historical and pedagogical contextualization of performance art remain subjects of considerable debate. A significant challenge arises from the term's polysemic nature, particularly as one of its interpretations pertains to the performing arts. However, this interpretation of "performance" within the performing arts context diverges fundamentally from the concept of "performance art," which originated from a critical and often antagonistic stance against traditional scenic arts. Performance art shares commonalities with the performing arts only in specific aspects, such as the presence of an audience and the physical body; moreover, not all performance art pieces incorporate these particular elements.

In its more restricted sense, the term "performance art" is intrinsically linked to postmodernist traditions prevalent in Western culture. Emerging from approximately the mid-1960s through the 1970s, and frequently drawing upon visual art concepts, performance art—influenced by figures and movements such as Antonin Artaud, Dada, the Situationists, Fluxus, installation art, and conceptual art—was often conceptualized as an antithesis to traditional theatre, thereby challenging established art forms and prevailing cultural norms. The underlying principle was to create an ephemeral and authentic experience for both performer and audience, manifesting as an event incapable of repetition, capture, or commercial acquisition. The extensively debated differentiation in the application of visual art and performing art concepts significantly impacts the interpretation of a performance art presentation.

The designation "performance art" is typically reserved for a conceptual art form that communicates content-driven meaning, often with dramatic undertones, rather than serving merely as entertainment or performance for its intrinsic sake. This genre primarily encompasses performances delivered to an audience, yet it deliberately avoids presenting a conventional theatrical play, a formal linear narrative, or the portrayal of fictitious characters within structured, scripted interactions. Consequently, it may incorporate action or spoken word as a direct communication between the artist and the audience, or even intentionally disregard audience expectations, rather than adhering to a pre-written script.

Nevertheless, certain manifestations of performance art can exhibit proximity to the performing arts. Such performances might employ a script or establish a fictitious dramatic context; however, they remain within the domain of performance art by intentionally deviating from the conventional dramatic norm of constructing a fictitious setting with a linear script that adheres to typical real-world dynamics. Instead, they purposefully aim to satirize or transcend the ordinary real-world dynamics commonly employed in traditional theatrical productions.

Performance artists frequently challenge audiences to engage in novel and unconventional thought processes, subverting traditional artistic conventions and dismantling established notions of "what art is." Provided the performer avoids repetitive role-playing, performance art can incorporate satirical elements; utilize robots and machines as performers, as exemplified by pieces from the Survival Research Laboratories; involve ritualized components (e.g., Shaun Caton); or integrate aspects from various performing arts such as dance, music, and circus. Performance art may also intersect with architecture and intertwine with religious practice and theology.

Some artists, such as the Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists, prefer alternative terms like "live art," "action art," "actions," "intervention," or "manoeuvre" to characterize their performative activities. Specific genres within performance art include body art, Fluxus-performance, happenings, action poetry, and intermedia.

Origins

Performance art originated as an alternative artistic expression, with the discipline emerging in 1916, concurrent with Dadaism, and situated within the broader framework of conceptual art. Tristan Tzara, a pioneer of Dada, spearheaded this movement. Western cultural theorists generally situate the genesis of performance art in the early 20th century, alongside movements such as Constructivism, Futurism, and Dadaism. Dada served as a significant inspiration due to its unconventional poetry actions. Furthermore, certain Futurist artists, particularly those associated with Russian Futurism, are also recognized as foundational to the emergence of performance art.

Cabaret Voltaire

The Cabaret Voltaire was established in Zürich, Switzerland, by Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings with both artistic and political objectives, serving as a crucible for new artistic tendencies. Located on the upper floor of a theater, whose conventional exhibitions were often satirized in the cabaret's performances, the cabaret featured avant-garde and experimental works. The Dada movement is believed to have been established within this ten-square-meter venue. Additionally, Surrealists, whose movement directly evolved from Dadaism, frequently convened at the Cabaret. During its brief operational period—spanning merely six months until its closure in the summer of 1916—the Cabaret hosted the inaugural Dada actions, performances, and presentations that integrated poetry, visual art, music, and repetitive actions, alongside the reading of the Dadaist Manifesto. Key figures, including Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Jean Arp, engaged in provocative and scandalous events that formed the foundational principles of the anarchist movement known as Dada.

Dadaism emerged with the explicit aim of dismantling established systems and norms within the art world. Characterized as an anti-art, anti-literary, and anti-poetry movement, it fundamentally challenged the very existence of art, literature, and poetry. Dadaism transcended a mere creative method, evolving into a comprehensive ideology that influenced a way of life. It opposed concepts such as eternal beauty, immutable principles, logical laws, intellectual stasis, and universal truths. Instead, it championed change, spontaneity, immediacy, contradiction, randomness, and the embrace of chaos over order, and imperfection over perfection—principles that resonate with performance art. Dadaists advocated for provocation, anti-art protest, and scandal, often employing satirical and ironic modes of expression. Their disruptive actions against traditional artistic forms were frequently characterized by absurdity, a rejection of inherent value, and an embrace of chaos.

Cabaret Voltaire closed in 1916 but was revived in the 21st century.

Futurism

Futurism emerged in 1909 as an avant-garde artistic movement. Initially, it manifested as a literary movement, despite a majority of its adherents being painters. Its early scope also encompassed sculpture, photography, music, and cinema. While the First World War largely curtailed the movement, it persisted in Italy until the 1930s. Russia was among the nations where Futurism exerted significant influence. Notable manifestos published include the Futurist Sculpture Manifesto and the Futurist Architecture in 1912, followed in 1913 by the Manifesto of Futurist Lust by the French dancer, writer, and artist Valentine de Saint-Point. Futurists disseminated their theories through public encounters, meetings, and conferences, which resembled political rallies and incorporated poetry and music-hall elements, thereby foreshadowing performance art.

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus, an art school established in Weimar in 1919, incorporated experimental performing arts workshops aimed at exploring the interrelationship of body, space, sound, and light. Black Mountain College, founded in the United States by Bauhaus instructors exiled by the Nazi Party, continued to integrate experimental performing arts into scenic arts education, predating the significant developments in performance history during the 1960s by two decades. The name Bauhaus derives from the German words Bau, construction, and Haus, house; ironically, despite its name and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus lacked an architecture department during its initial years.

Action painting

During the 1940s and 1950s, the action painting technique or movement allowed artists to conceptualize the canvas as an arena for action, thereby transforming the resulting artworks into vestiges of the artist's studio performance. According to art critic Harold Rosenberg, it constituted a foundational process for performance art, alongside Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollock, often considered the quintessential action painter, frequently executed his works as live performances. In Europe, Yves Klein created his *Anthropométries* by employing female bodies to apply paint to canvases in public demonstrations. Notable figures such as Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline also incorporated elements of abstract and action painting into their oeuvres.

Nouveau réalisme

Nouveau réalisme is recognized as a pivotal artistic movement in the genesis of performance art. This painting movement was established in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany and painter Yves Klein, coinciding with their inaugural collective exhibition at the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan. Nouveau réalisme was, alongside Fluxus and other groups, among the numerous avant-garde currents of the 1960s. Pierre Restany orchestrated several performance art installations at the Tate Modern and other venues. Yves Klein emerged as a distinct pioneer of performance art, with his conceptual pieces like Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle (1959–62), Anthropométries (1960), and the photomontage Saut dans le vide. His entire oeuvre demonstrates a strong connection to performance art, often being conceived as live actions, exemplified by his renowned paintings created with female models. The group's members perceived the world as a vast image, from which they extracted elements to integrate into their art, thereby striving to bridge the gap between life and artistic expression.

Gutai

The Japanese Gutai movement, known for its action art and happenings, also significantly anticipated performance art. It originated in 1955 within Japan's Kansai region (encompassing Kyōto, Ōsaka, and Kōbe). Key participants included Jirō Yoshihara, Sadamasa Motonaga, Shozo Shimamoto, Saburō Murakami, Katsuō Shiraga, Seichi Sato, Akira Ganayama, and Atsuko Tanaka. Formed in the aftermath of World War II, the Gutai group rejected capitalist consumerism, manifesting this through ironic actions imbued with latent aggressiveness, such as object destruction and smoke-based performances. Their influence extended to groups like Fluxus and artists including Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell.

Land art and performance

In the late 1960s, various Land Art artists, including Robert Smithson and Dennis Oppenheim, produced environmental installations that anticipated performance art of the 1970s. Subsequently, conceptual artists of the early 1980s, such as Sol LeWitt, who transformed mural drawing into a performative act, drew inspiration from Yves Klein and other Land Art practitioners. Land Art is a contemporary art movement characterized by an intrinsic connection between the landscape and the artistic creation. It utilizes natural elements (e.g., wood, soil, rocks, sand, wind, fire, water) as materials for site-specific interventions. The artwork's genesis is inherently tied to its specific location. The outcomes often manifest as a fusion of sculpture and architecture, or sculpture and landscaping, a hybrid form gaining increasing prominence in contemporary public spaces. When the artist's body is integrated into the creative process, Land Art exhibits parallels with the nascent stages of performance art.

1960s

During the 1960s, a diverse array of new artistic works, concepts, and a growing number of artists contributed to the emergence of novel forms of performance art. This development aimed to broaden the conventional understanding of art, drawing inspiration from principles akin to those of Cabaret Voltaire or Futurism. These new movements were distinct from Viennese Actionism, avant-garde performance art in New York City, process art, the evolution of The Living Theatre, or happenings, yet they collectively solidified the foundational contributions of performance art pioneers.

Viennese Actionism

Viennese Actionism (Wiener Aktionismus) denotes a concise yet contentious 20th-century art movement, recognized for the violent, grotesque, and visceral nature of its works. Originating within the Austrian avant-garde of the 1960s, its objective was to integrate art with performance, establishing connections with Fluxus and Body Art. Prominent exponents included Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, and Hermann Nitsch, who primarily conducted their actionist activities from 1960 to 1971. Nitsch, a pioneer in performance art, premiered his Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries (Orgien und Mysterien Theater) in 1962. Marina Abramović later participated as a performer in one of his works in 1975.

New York and Avant-Garde Performance

During the early 1960s, New York City became a significant center for numerous movements, events, and interests related to performance art. Notably, Andy Warhol initiated his work in film and video production. By mid-decade, he sponsored The Velvet Underground and orchestrated various performative events in New York, such as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966), which featured live rock music, dynamic lighting, and films. Among the city's avant-garde performance artists, Joey Skaggs gained prominence in the 1960s through provocative public interventions that critiqued institutional power and media spectacle. His early oeuvre includes The Crucifixion (1966–1969), a life-size sculpture of a decaying Christ displayed in public parks to protest religious hypocrisy, and the Hippie Bus Tour to Queens (1968), where East Village artists parodied voyeuristic tourist buses by visiting suburban neighborhoods.

The Living Theatre

New theatrical forms, exemplified by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and The Living Theatre, significantly influenced art-world performance, particularly in the United States. These productions were often presented in Off-Off Broadway theaters in SoHo and at La MaMa in New York City. The Living Theatre, established in New York in 1947, holds the distinction of being the oldest experimental theater in the United States. Its leadership has consistently been provided by its founders: actress Judith Malina, who studied theater with Erwin Piscator, focusing on the theories of Bertolt Brecht and Meyerhold; and painter and poet Julian Beck. Following Beck's death in 1985, company member Hanon Reznikov assumed the role of co-director alongside Malina.

As one of the longest-standing experimental theater groups, The Living Theatre served as a significant model for others. Its members viewed theater as a way of life, with actors living communally under libertarian principles. The company's theatrical endeavors aimed to transform the power structures of authoritarian and hierarchical societies. The Living Theatre primarily toured Europe from 1963 to 1968, and the U.S. in 1968. A notable production from this era, Paradise Now, gained notoriety for its extensive audience participation and a scene where actors recited a list of social taboos, including nudity, while disrobing.

Fluxus

Fluxus, a Latin term signifying flow, constitutes a visual arts movement encompassing music, literature, and dance. Its period of peak activity occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. Adherents of Fluxus advocated against the commodification of traditional artistic objects, positioning the movement as a form of sociological art. George Maciunas (1931–1978) informally established Fluxus in 1962. The movement gained adherents across Europe, the United States, and Japan. Primarily evolving in North America and Europe, influenced by John Cage, the Fluxus movement diverged from viewing the avant-garde as merely a linguistic innovation. Instead, it aimed to repurpose established art channels, detaching them from specific linguistic constraints, and embraced an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating diverse mediums and materials. Within this framework, language served not as an ultimate objective, but as a mechanism for the broader renovation of art, conceived as a global phenomenon. Similar to Dada, Fluxus resisted precise definition or categorization. Dick Higgins, a co-founder of the movement, articulated:

Fluxus started with the work, and then came together, applying the name Fluxus to work which already existed. It was as if it started in the middle of the situation, rather than at the beginning.

Robert Filliou contrasted Fluxus with conceptual art, emphasizing its direct, immediate, and urgent engagement with quotidian existence. He posited that while Marcel Duchamp, through his Ready-mades, integrated everyday objects into art, Fluxus inverted this approach by dissolving art into daily life, frequently through minor actions or performances.

John Cage was a prominent American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. As a pioneer in musical indeterminacy, electroacoustic music, and unconventional instrumentation, Cage emerged as a pivotal figure in the post-war avant-garde. He has been widely acclaimed by critics as one of the twentieth century's most influential composers. Furthermore, Cage played a crucial role in the evolution of modern dance, largely attributable to his extensive collaboration with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also his lifelong romantic partner.

Sari Dienes, a close associate of Cage, is recognized as a significant intermediary connecting Abstract Expressionists, Neo-Dada artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson, and the Fluxus movement. Dienes notably influenced these artists to integrate elements of life, Zen philosophy, performative art-making methodologies, and "events," executed through both premeditated and spontaneous approaches.

Process Art

Process art designates an artistic movement where the ultimate outcome of art and craft, specifically the objet d’art (encompassing both works of art and found objects), is not the primary emphasis. Instead, the creative process itself—involving activities such as gathering, sorting, collating, associating, patterning, and initiating actions and proceedings—is considered paramount. Practitioners of Process art regarded artistic creation as an unadulterated form of human expression. The movement posits that the very act of creating an artwork can constitute an artwork in its own right. Artist Robert Morris notably prioritized "anti-form," process, and time over a definitive, object-based finished product.

Happening

According to Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort in The New Media Reader, "The term 'Happening' has been used to describe many performances and events, organized by Allan Kaprow and others during the 1950s and 1960s, including a number of theatrical productions that were traditionally scripted and invited only limited audience interaction." A happening provides artists with a platform to explore bodily movement, recorded audio, spoken and written texts, and olfactory elements. Allan Kaprow's early contributions include Happenings in the New York Scene, published in 1961. Kaprow's happenings transformed audience members into active participants or interpreters. Frequently, spectators inadvertently became integral to the performance. Notable creators of happenings included Jim Dine, Al Hansen, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Whitman, and Wolf Vostell, whose work includes Theater is in the Street (Paris, 1958).

Main Artists

Performance art created after 1968 frequently reflected the political and cultural landscape of that year. Barbara T. Smith, with her 1969 work Ritual Meal, was a vanguard figure in body and scenic feminist art during the 1970s, a movement that also included Carolee Schneemann and Joan Jonas. These artists, along with Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Allan Kaprow, Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, Dennis Oppenheim, and members of the Spanish Zaj collective such as Esther Ferrer and Juan Hidalgo, were pioneers in exploring the relationship between body art and performance art.

Barbara Smith is an American artist and activist, recognized as a leading African-American proponent of feminism and LGBT activism in the United States. In the early 1970s, she served as an educator, writer, and advocate for the Black feminism movement. She has taught at numerous colleges and universities over the past five years. Smith's essays, reviews, articles, short stories, and literary criticism have appeared in a range of publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Village Voice, and The Nation.

Carolee Schneemann was an American experimental visual artist, renowned for her multimedia works exploring the body, narrative, sexuality, and gender. Her notable pieces include Meat Joy (1964) and Interior Scroll (1975). Schneemann regarded her body as a fundamental surface for her artistic endeavors, famously describing herself as "a painter who has left the canvas to activate the real space and the lived time."

Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, recognized as one of the most significant female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her foundational projects and experiments provided the basis for much subsequent video performance art, with her influence also extending to conceptual art, theater, and other visual media. Jonas currently lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia, Canada. Immersed in New York's downtown art scene during the 1960s, she studied with choreographer Trisha Brown for two years and also collaborated with choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton.

Yoko Ono was a prominent figure in the 1960s avant-garde and Fluxus movements. She is particularly recognized for her late 1960s performance art pieces, such as Cut Piece, where visitors were invited to interact with her body by cutting away her clothing. Another of her notable works is Wall piece for orchestra (1962).

Joseph Beuys was a German artist recognized for his contributions to Fluxus, happenings, performance art, painting, sculpture, medal design, and installation art. His engagement with the Fluxus neodadaist movement commenced in 1962, where he subsequently became a pivotal member. A significant aspect of his legacy was the socialization of art, aiming to enhance its accessibility to a broader public. In his 1965 performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, Beuys covered his face with honey and gold leaf while elucidating his artwork to a deceased hare cradled in his arms. This piece integrated spatial, sculptural, linguistic, and sonic elements with the artist's physical presence and gestures, embodying the consciousness of a communicator addressing an animal recipient. Beuys often adopted the persona of a shaman, believing he possessed healing and salvific powers for a society he perceived as moribund. In 1974, he executed the performance I Like America and America Likes Me, which involved Beuys, a coyote, and materials such as paper, felt, and thatch. He cohabited with the coyote for three days, during which he accumulated United States newspapers, symbolizing capitalism. Over time, a degree of mutual tolerance developed between Beuys and the coyote, culminating in the artist embracing the animal. Beuys frequently incorporated recurring elements in his works. His objects differed from Duchamp's readymades not due to their humble or ephemeral nature, but because they were integral to Beuys's personal life, having been imbued with his experiences and marks. Many of these elements, such as honey or the grease associated with Tartars who survived World War II, carried autobiographical significance. In 1970, he created his Felt Suit. That same year, Beuys taught sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. A retrospective of his work from the 1940s to 1970 was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 1979.

Nam June Paik, a South Korean performance, composition, and video artist, was prominent during the latter half of the 20th century. He pursued studies in music and art history at the University of Tokyo. In 1956, he relocated to Germany, where he initially studied Music Theory in Munich before continuing his education at the Freiburg Conservatory in Cologne. During his German studies, Paik encountered notable figures such as composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, alongside conceptual artists Sharon Grace, George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys, and Wolf Vostell. From 1962, he became an active participant in Fluxus, an experimental art movement. Paik subsequently engaged with this Neo-Dada movement, Fluxus, which drew inspiration from John Cage's incorporation of quotidian sounds and noises into his musical compositions. As a member of Fluxus, he maintained a close association with Yoko Ono.

Wolf Vostell, a German artist, emerged as a highly representative figure during the latter half of the 20th century. His diverse artistic practice encompassed a wide array of media and techniques, including painting, sculpture, installation, decollage, video art, happenings, and Fluxus.

Vito Acconci was an influential American artist renowned for his work in performance, video, and installation art, whose expansive practice later extended to sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His seminal performance and video art was distinguished by themes of "existential unease," exhibitionism, discomfort, transgression, and provocation, often coupled with wit and audacity. This work frequently challenged conventional boundaries, such as those between public and private, consensual and non-consensual, and the real world and the art world. Acconci's oeuvre is recognized for its influence on artists including Laurie Anderson, Karen Finley, Bruce Nauman, and Tracey Emin. Initially drawn to radical poetry, Acconci shifted his focus by the late 1960s to create Situationist-influenced performances. These works, often staged in public spaces or for intimate audiences, investigated the body and its interaction with public environments. Among his most celebrated pieces are Following Piece (1969), where he randomly selected and followed pedestrians on New York City streets for extended periods, and Seedbed (1972), an installation at the Sonnabend Gallery where he purportedly masturbated beneath a temporary floor while visitors walked above and overheard his vocalizations.

Chris Burden was an American artist whose practice encompassed performance, sculpture, and installation art. He gained prominence in the 1970s for his performance art pieces, notably Shoot (1971), an act where he arranged for an associate to shoot him in the arm with a small-caliber rifle. Burden, a prolific artist, produced numerous renowned installations, public artworks, and sculptures prior to his passing in 2015. His engagement with performance art commenced in the early 1970s, marked by a series of controversial works that centered on the concept of personal danger as a form of artistic expression. His inaugural significant performance, Five Day Locker Piece (1971), conceived for his master's thesis at the University of California, Irvine, involved his confinement within a locker for five days.

Dennis Oppenheim was an American artist recognized for his contributions to conceptual art, performance art, earth art, sculpture, and photography. Oppenheim's early artistic endeavors constituted an epistemological inquiry into the essence, creation, and definition of art, manifesting as a meta-art. This approach emerged from an expansion of Minimalist strategies to incorporate considerations of site and context. Beyond its aesthetic objectives, his work evolved from examining the physical attributes of the gallery space to addressing broader social and political contexts. During the final two decades of his highly prolific career, Oppenheim's diverse output, which occasionally challenged critics, predominantly took the form of permanent public sculpture.

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist whose extensive career has encompassed a wide array of media, including sculpture, installation, painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other artistic forms. A significant portion of her work demonstrates a profound interest in psychedelia, repetition, and patterns. Kusama is recognized as a pioneer within the Pop Art, Minimalism, and Feminist Art movements, and she influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. She is widely acknowledged as one of Japan's most significant living artists and a highly relevant voice in avant-garde art.

1970s

During the 1970s, artists whose practices had previously incorporated elements of performance art increasingly established it as their primary discipline. This evolution led to the creation of installations through performance, video performance, or collective actions, frequently contextualized within specific socio-historical and political frameworks.

Video Performance

By the early 1970s, the integration of video into performance art became firmly established. Exhibitions by artists such as Joan Jonas and Vito Acconci, for example, featured works composed entirely of video, often activated by preceding performative processes. During this decade, several publications, including Gene Youngblood's Expanded Cinema, explored performance artists' utilization of communication media, video, and cinema. A pivotal artist in this domain is the South Korean Nam June Paik, celebrated for his innovative audiovisual installations. Paik's artistic journey commenced in the early 1960s within the Fluxus movement, subsequently leading to his development as a media artist and the creation of his iconic audiovisual installations.

The video-performance work of Carolee Schneemann and Robert Whitman from the 1960s also warrants consideration. Both artists were pioneers in performance art, instrumental in its establishment as an independent art form by the early 1970s.

Joan Jonas began incorporating video into her experimental performances in 1972, concurrently with Bruce Nauman, who specifically staged his acts for direct video recording. Nauman, an American multimedia artist, has significantly diversified and advanced cultural discourse since the 1960s through his sculptures, videos, graphic works, and performances. His often unsettling artworks underscore the conceptual essence of art and the creative process, prioritizing the underlying concept and the process of creation above the final product. His artistic practice employs a diverse range of materials, frequently incorporating his own body.

Gilbert & George, comprising Italian artist Gilbert Proesch and English artist George Passmore, are renowned for their contributions to conceptual art, performance art, and body art. They gained significant recognition for their 'living sculpture' performances. An early notable work was The Singing Sculpture, in which the artists sang and danced to "Underneath the Arches," a 1930s song. Subsequently, they established a strong reputation as 'living sculptures,' presenting themselves as artworks exhibited before audiences for varying durations. Typically, they appear in suits and ties, adopting static postures for extended periods, though they occasionally incorporate movement, text recitation, or integrate themselves into larger assemblies and installations. Beyond their sculptural work, Gilbert & George have produced pictorial works, collages, and photomontages. These often feature the artists alongside various objects from their immediate environment, incorporating references to urban culture and addressing potent themes such as sex, race, death and HIV, religion, and politics, frequently critiquing the British government and established power structures. Among their most prolific and ambitious undertakings is Jack Freak Pictures, characterized by the pervasive presence of the red, white, and blue colors of the Union Jack. Gilbert & George's work has been exhibited globally in institutions such as the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (1980), the Hayward Gallery in London (1987), and the Tate Modern (2007). They have also participated in the Venice Biennale and were awarded the Turner Prize in 1986.

Endurance Art

Endurance performance art investigates themes including trance states, physical pain, solitude, the curtailment of liberty, social isolation, and extreme exhaustion. Performances extending over prolonged durations are frequently categorized as long-durational works. Chris Burden, a prominent figure in this artistic genre, pioneered this approach throughout the 1970s. Among his notable works, Five Day Locker Piece (1971) involved his confinement within a school locker for five days; in Shoot (1971), he sustained a gunshot wound; and for Bed Piece (1972), he remained in bed within an art gallery for twenty-two consecutive days. Tehching Hsieh represents another significant endurance artist. In his 1980–1981 performance, Time Clock Piece, Hsieh documented himself hourly for a full year by photographing himself beside a time clock in his studio. Hsieh is also recognized for works exploring the deprivation of freedom, notably spending a full year in confinement. Bryan Lewis Saunders is another practitioner of long-durational performance; his ongoing project, Under the Influence (1995–present), entails producing daily self-portraits while experiencing altered states of perception. Furthermore, in 30 Days Totally Blind (2018), he endured a month of complete self-imposed blindness, during which he maintained his daily self-portrait practice. Marina Abramović, in The House With the Ocean View (2003), sustained twelve days of silent living without sustenance. "The Nine Confinements" or "The Deprivation of Liberty" constitutes a series of conceptual endurance performances by artist Abel Azcona, executed between 2013 and 2016, with each piece examining the illegitimate curtailment of freedom.

Political Dimensions of Performance Art

During the mid-1970s, experimental scenic arts proliferated in significant Eastern European cities behind the Iron Curtain, including Budapest, Kraków, Belgrade, Zagreb, and Novi Sad. In opposition to prevailing political and social controls, numerous artists developed performance works with explicit political themes. Orshi Drozdik's performance series, Individual Mythology (1975–77) and NudeModel (1976–77), exemplify this trend. Her artistic interventions consistently critiqued the patriarchal discourse prevalent in art and challenged the state-imposed emancipation programs, which were themselves rooted in patriarchal structures. Drozdik's work demonstrated a pioneering feminist perspective on these issues, establishing her as a significant precursor of critical art in Eastern Europe. The ephemeral nature of performance art contributed to its strong presence within the Eastern European avant-garde during the 1970s, particularly in Poland and Yugoslavia, where dozens of artists engaged in conceptual and critical explorations of the human body.

The Other

In the mid-1970s, Ulay and Marina Abramović established the collective The Other in Amsterdam. Their collaboration primarily investigated concepts of ego and artistic identity, initiating a decade of joint artistic endeavors. Both artists shared an interest in their cultural heritage and the human desire for ritualistic practices. Within The Other, they adopted a unified appearance and demeanor, fostering a relationship of profound trust. Their works often involved their bodies creating interactive spaces for the audience. For instance, in Relation in Space, they ran around a room, embodying two planetary figures, merging masculine and feminine energies into a third entity they termed "that self." In Relation in Movement (1976), the duo drove their car inside a museum, completing 365 spins. A black liquid dripped from the vehicle, forming a sculpture, with each rotation symbolizing a year. Subsequently, they created Breathing In/Breathing Out, a performance where they united their lips, inhaling each other's exhaled breath until oxygen depletion. Precisely 17 minutes into the performance, both artists lost consciousness due to carbon dioxide accumulation in their lungs. This piece explored the notion of one individual's capacity to absorb, transform, and potentially diminish another's vitality. By 1988, following several years of a strained relationship, Abramović and Ulay resolved to conclude their collective work with a spiritual journey. They traversed the Great Wall of China, commencing from opposite ends and meeting midway. Abramović envisioned this walk in a dream, perceiving it as a fitting and romantic culmination to their relationship, characterized by mysticism, energy, and mutual attraction. Ulay began his journey in the Gobi Desert, while Abramović started from the Yellow Sea. Each artist walked 2,500 kilometers, converged in the middle, and bid farewell.

Prominent Performance Artists

In 1973, Laurie Anderson performed Duets on Ice on the streets of New York. Concurrently, Marina Abramović's performance Rhythm 10 conceptually addressed bodily violation. Three decades later, themes of rape, shame, and sexual exploitation were re-examined in the works of contemporary artists including Clifford Owens, Gillian Walsh, Pat Oleszko, and Rebecca Patek. Pioneering artists, through their radical actions, established themselves as key figures in performance art. Examples include Chris Burden's 1971 work Shoot, where an assistant shot him in the arm from five meters away, and Vito Acconci's Seedbed from the same year. Carolee Schneemann's Eye Body (1963) had already been recognized as an early prototype of performance art. In 1975, Schneemann further explored innovative solo performances, such as Interior Scroll, which utilized the female body as an artistic medium.

Gina Pane, a French artist of Italian descent, was a prominent figure in performance art. She pursued studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1960 to 1965 and was an active participant in the 1970s French performance art movement known as "Art Corporel." Concurrently with her artistic practice, Pane taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Mans from 1975 to 1990 and directed an atelier dedicated to performance art at the Pompidou Centre from 1978 to 1979. Among her most recognized works is The Conditioning (1973), in which she lay on a metal bed spring positioned over lit candles. This piece was later re-performed as an homage to Marina Abramović, forming part of her Seven Easy Pieces (2005) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. A significant portion of Pane's oeuvre featured self-inflicted pain, distinguishing her from many other female artists of the 1970s. Through acts such as cutting her skin with razors or extinguishing flames with her bare hands and feet, Pane aimed to provoke a real experience in the viewer, eliciting a visceral response to the discomfort. The impactful nature of these early performance pieces, or "actions" as she preferred to call them, often overshadowed her prolific photographic and sculptural work. Nevertheless, the body remained the central thematic concern in Pane's art, whether explored literally or conceptually.

The 1980s

Performance Art Techniques

The initial characteristic of performance art, prior to the 1980s, was its demystification of virtuosity. However, starting in the 1980s, the discipline began to incorporate elements of technical brilliance. Sally Banes, a dance critic, observes this shift in her commentary on Philip Auslander's work, Presence and Resistance. Banes notes that by the close of the 1980s, performance art had achieved such widespread recognition that explicit definition became unnecessary. Mass culture, particularly television, increasingly provided both structural frameworks and thematic content for much performance art. Furthermore, several performance artists, including Laurie Anderson, Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Willem Dafoe, and Ann Magnuson, successfully transitioned into mainstream entertainment. During this decade, the specific parameters and technical methodologies aimed at refining and perfecting performance art were established.

Critical Analysis and Scholarly Inquiry into Performance Art

While numerous performances occur within the confines of a specialized art-world community, Roselee Goldberg highlights in Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present that "performance has been a way of appealing directly to a large public, as well as shocking audiences into reassessing their own notions of art and its relation to culture." Conversely, public engagement with the medium, particularly during the 1980s, appeared to originate from a desire to access the art world, observe its rituals and unique community, and encounter the artists' consistently unconventional and surprising presentations. This decade also saw the proliferation of publications and anthologies dedicated to performance art and its most prominent practitioners.

Performance Art within a Political Framework

The political climate of the 1980s significantly influenced artistic development, particularly within performance art, given that nearly all works incorporating critical and political discourse were situated within this discipline. Prior to the dissolution of the European Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s, most communist governments actively suppressed performance art. With the notable exceptions of Poland and Yugoslavia, performance art was largely prohibited in nations where independent public gatherings were viewed with suspicion. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Latvia, such performances were confined to private apartments, ostensibly spontaneous artist studio gatherings, church-supervised environments, or disguised as other activities, such as photo shoots. Detached from Western conceptual frameworks, these performances in diverse settings ranged from playful protests to poignant critiques, employing subversive metaphors to articulate opposition to the prevailing political conditions. Among the most notable politically charged performance art pieces of this era was Tehching Hsieh's Art/Life: One Year Performance (Rope Piece), executed between July 1983 and July 1984.

Performance Poetry

The terms "poetry" and "performance" were first conjoined in 1982. Performance poetry emerged as a distinct category to differentiate text-centric vocal presentations from broader performance art, particularly from the work of scenic and musical performance artists like Laurie Anderson, who incorporated music into her practice during that period. Performance poets typically emphasized rhetorical and philosophical expression within their poetics more heavily than performance artists, who often originated from visual art disciplines such as painting and sculpture. Since the pioneering work of John Cage, numerous artists have integrated performance with a foundational poetic sensibility.

Feminist Performance Art

The Feminist Studio Workshop, located within the Woman's Building in Los Angeles, significantly influenced the burgeoning wave of feminist artistic actions starting in 1973; however, a complete integration of feminism and performance art did not fully materialize until 1980. The convergence of these two domains advanced considerably throughout the subsequent decade. Notably, many works created during the initial two decades of performance art's development, though not originally conceptualized as feminist, are now retrospectively interpreted through a feminist lens.

Artists did not explicitly self-identify as feminists until 1980. Prominent artist groups featured women significantly influenced by both the 1968 student movement and the broader feminist movement. Contemporary art historical research has extensively explored this interrelationship. Key figures providing innovative contributions to artistic representations and exhibitions included Pina Bausch and the Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous feminist and anti-racist art collective formed in New York City in 1985. Their chosen moniker reflected their use of guerrilla tactics in activism, employing political and performance art to expose discrimination against women within the art world. Initial performances involved placing posters and conducting public appearances in New York museums and galleries, critically addressing gender and racial discrimination. These actions were executed anonymously, with members concealing their identities behind gorilla masks, a choice referencing the phonetic similarity between "gorilla" and "guerrilla." For pseudonyms, they adopted the names of deceased female artists. Between the 1970s and 1980s, significant works challenging conventional representational strategies frequently centered on the female body. Examples include Ana Mendieta's New York-based pieces, which depict the body as violated and abused, and Louise Bourgeois's artistic representations, characterized by a minimalist discourse emerging in the late 1970s and 1980s. Notably, works exploring feminine and feminist corporeality, such as Lynda Benglis's phallic performative actions, aimed to reconstruct the female image beyond mere fetishization. Feminist performance art thus transformed the body into a crucial site for developing novel discourses and interpretations. Eleanor Antin, an artist active during the 1970s and 1980s, explored themes of gender, race, and class. Cindy Sherman, from her early works in the 1970s through her artistic maturity in the 1980s, maintained a critical approach to subverting the imposed self, utilizing the body as an object of privileged inquiry.

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and artist. Recognized as one of the most influential post-war artists, her work spanning over three decades has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Although she features in the majority of her performative photographs, she does not categorize them as self-portraits. Sherman employs her own image as a conduit to explore a diverse range of contemporary themes, including women's societal roles, their media representation, and the fundamental nature of artistic creation. In 2020, she received the Wolf Prize in Arts.

Judy Chicago is an American artist and a pioneering figure in feminist and performance art. Chicago is renowned for her large-scale collaborative art installations, which explore themes of birth and creation to examine women's roles in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago established the inaugural feminist art program in the United States. Her artistic practice integrates diverse skills, such as sewing, often juxtaposed with labor-intensive techniques like welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most celebrated work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art within the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party commemorates the historical achievements of women and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Additional notable projects include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project.

The Canadian lesbian art collective Kiss & Tell, comprising Persimmon Blackbridge (b.1951), Lizard Jones (b.1961), and Susan Stewart (b.1952), integrates queer feminism into their creative practice, which encompasses a diverse range of performance art. Their performances featured monologues, confessionals, and humorous anecdotes, delivered through a blend of storytelling, photography, video, and music to engage and connect with audiences. Kiss & Tell drew inspiration from various performance artists, including Emmy Hennings, Carolee Schneemann, Martha Rosler, and the Guerrilla Girls.

Expansion into Latin America.

During this decade, performance art expanded into Latin America, primarily facilitated by workshops and programs offered by universities and academic institutions. Its development was particularly notable in Mexico, Colombia—featuring artists like Maria Teresa Hincapié—Brazil, and Argentina.

Ana Mendieta, a conceptual and performance artist born in Cuba and raised in the United States, gained significant recognition for her land art installations and performance pieces. Initially, Mendieta's oeuvre was primarily acknowledged within feminist art criticism. However, in the years following her death, particularly after the 2004 Whitney Museum of American Art retrospective and the 2013 Haywart Gallery retrospective in London, she has been widely recognized as a pioneering figure in performance art, body art, land art, sculpture, and photography. Mendieta characterized her distinctive artistic practice as earth-body art.

Tania Bruguera is a Cuban artist whose practice specializes in performance art and political art, primarily interpreting political and social themes. She has conceptualized "conduct art" to delineate artistic practices that explore the boundaries of language and the body in relation to audience reaction and behavior. Additionally, Bruguera introduced the concept of "useful art," which aims to instigate transformations in specific political and legal dimensions of society. Her work frequently addresses themes of power and control, with a substantial portion critically examining the contemporary conditions in her native Cuba. In 2002, she established the Cátedra Arte de Conducta in Havana.

Regina José Galindo is a Guatemalan performance artist whose work is distinguished by its explicit political and critical content, employing her own body as an instrument for confrontation and social transformation. Her artistic trajectory has been profoundly influenced by the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), a conflict that resulted in the genocide of over 200,000 individuals, including a significant number of indigenous people, farmers, women, and children. Through her art, Galindo critiques violence, sexism (with femicide being a prominent theme), Western beauty standards, state repression, and the abuse of power, particularly within her national context, although her artistic discourse transcends geographical boundaries. Initially, she exclusively utilized her body as a medium, sometimes pushing it to extreme situations, such as in Himenoplasty (2004), a performance involving hymen reconstruction that earned her the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Subsequently, she began incorporating volunteers or hired participants, thereby relinquishing control over the performance's outcome.

The 1990s

The 1990s marked a period of reduced visibility for traditional European performance art, leading many artists to maintain a low profile. Conversely, Eastern Europe witnessed a significant surge in performance art. Concurrently, Latin American performance art and feminist performance art continued their expansion. The discipline also experienced a peak in Asian countries, where its origins can be traced to the Butō dance of the 1950s; during this decade, however, it underwent professionalization, and new Chinese artists gained substantial recognition. This era also saw a broader professionalization of performance art, evidenced by an increase in dedicated exhibitions and the inclusion of performance art at the Venice Art Biennale, where several practitioners, including Anne Imhof, Regina José Galindo, and Santiago Sierra, have been awarded the Leone d'Oro.

Performance Art in Political Contexts

With the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc, previously prohibited performance art pieces began to circulate more widely. Young artists across the former Eastern Bloc, including Russia, increasingly engaged with performance art. Concurrently, scenic arts, including performance, emerged in Cuba, the Caribbean, and China. As noted by scholars, "In these contexts, performance art became a new critical voice with a social strength similar to that of Western Europe, the United States and South America in the sixties and early seventies. It must be emphasized that the rise of performance art in the 1990s in Eastern Europe, China, South Africa, Cuba and other places must not be considered secondary or an imitation of the West."

The Professionalization of Performance Art

During the 1990s, performance art achieved mainstream integration within the Western world. Diverse performance artworks, encompassing live presentations, photographic documentation, and other records, began to be incorporated into galleries and museums, which increasingly recognized performance art as a distinct artistic discipline. However, significant institutionalization primarily occurred in the subsequent decade, when major museums such as the Tate Modern in London, MoMA in New York City, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris started acquiring performance art for their collections and organizing extensive exhibitions and retrospectives. Concurrently, from the 1990s onward, a growing number of performance artists received invitations to prestigious biennials, including the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Lyon Biennial.

Performance Art in China

Chinese contemporary and performance art gained substantial international recognition in the late 1990s, notably with the invitation of 19 Chinese artists to the Venice Biennale. While performance art in China had been developing since the 1970s, driven by cultural interests in art, process, and tradition, its broader recognition emerged from the 1990s onward. By the early 1990s, Chinese performance art had already garnered acclaim within the international art community. Domestically, it is now integrated into fine arts education programs and continues to grow in popularity.

Developments Since the 2000s

New Media Performance

From the late 1990s through the 2000s, numerous artists integrated emerging technologies, including the World Wide Web, digital video, webcams, and streaming media, into their performance art. Practitioners such as Coco Fusco, Shu Lea Cheang, and Prema Murthy created works that examined the interplay of gender, race, colonialism, and the body within the context of the Internet. Concurrently, groups like Critical Art Ensemble, Electronic Disturbance Theater, and Yes Men leveraged digital technologies associated with hacktivism and interventionism to address political concerns related to contemporary capitalism and consumerism.

During the latter half of the 2000s, computer-aided forms of performance art emerged, fostering the development of algorithmic art, generative art, and robotic art. In these innovative forms, the computer itself or a computer-controlled robot assumes the role of the performer.

Coco Fusco, an interdisciplinary Cuban-American artist, writer, and curator based in the United States, commenced her artistic career in 1988. Her practice primarily involves performance, through which she investigates themes of identity, race, power, and gender. Additionally, her oeuvre includes videos, interactive installations, and critical writing.

Radical Performance Art

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, several performance artists, including Pussy Riot, Tania Bruguera, and Petr Pavlensky, faced prosecution for their diverse artistic interventions.

Pussy Riot

On February 21, 2012, members of the artistic collective Pussy Riot staged a protest against the re-election of Vladimir Putin by entering the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox Church. Inside, they performed a song and dance, making the sign of the cross and bowing before the shrine, under the slogan "Virgin Mary, put Putin Away." Their detention followed on March 3. On the same day, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, identified as Pussy Riot members, were arrested by Russian authorities and charged with vandalism. Initially, both denied group affiliation and initiated a hunger strike, protesting their incarceration and separation from their children until their trials commenced in April. On March 16, Yekaterina Samutsévitch, who had previously been questioned as a witness, was also arrested and charged.

Formal charges, accompanied by a 2,800-page indictment, were filed against the group on July 5. Concurrently, they were informed that they had until July 9 to prepare their defense. In response, they declared a hunger strike, arguing that a two-day period was insufficient for defense preparation. On July 21, the court extended their pre-trial detention by an additional six months. The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners subsequently recognized the three detained members as political prisoners. Amnesty International also designated them as prisoners of conscience, citing "the severity of the response of the Russian authorities."

Other Instances

Since 2012, artist Abel Azcona has faced legal proceedings concerning several of his artistic creations. The most widely publicized legal action originated from the Archbishopric of Pamplona and Tudela, acting on behalf of the Catholic Church. The Church accused Azcona of desecration, blasphemy, hate crime, and infringing upon religious freedom and sentiments, specifically regarding his work titled Amen or The Pederasty. Subsequently, in 2016, Azcona faced accusations of glorifying terrorism due to his exhibition Natura Morta. This exhibition featured performances, hyperrealistic sculptures, and installations that depicted scenarios of violence, historical memory, terrorism, and armed conflicts.

In December 2014, Tania Bruguera was apprehended in Havana, ostensibly to preempt her execution of new protest-oriented artworks. Her performance art has consistently drawn severe criticism, leading to accusations of inciting resistance and public disorder. Between December 2015 and January 2016, Bruguera was again detained for orchestrating a public performance in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución. Her arrest occurred alongside other Cuban artists, activists, and journalists involved in the campaign Yo También Exijo, which emerged following the announcements by Raúl Castro and Barack Obama regarding the restoration of diplomatic relations. For the performance titled El Susurro de Tatlin #6, Bruguera installed microphones and loudspeakers in the Plaza de la Revolución, enabling Cuban citizens to articulate their perspectives on the evolving political landscape. This event garnered significant international media attention, including a presentation of El Susurro de Tatlin #6 in Times Square. Furthermore, numerous artists and intellectuals advocated for Bruguera's release by submitting an open letter to Raúl Castro, signed by thousands globally, demanding the return of her passport and asserting that her detention constituted a criminal injustice, given her sole action was to provide a platform for public expression.

Petr Pavlensky was arrested in November 2015 and again in October 2017 for executing radical performance art pieces. These involved setting fire to the entrance of the Lubyanka Building, the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service, and subsequently a branch office of the Bank of France. In both instances, he doused the main entrance with gasoline; during the second performance, he also sprayed the interior before igniting it with a lighter. Consequently, the building's doors sustained partial burn damage. On both occasions, Pavlensky was apprehended without resistance and charged with debauchery. Within hours of these actions, several politically and artistically charged protest videos emerged online.

Lia Garcia, a transfeminist performance artist from Mexico known by her stage name la Novia Sirena, explores themes of touch and vulnerability to underscore issues of gender-based violence and transgender identity. Often engaging with site-specific environments, Garcia's work Proyecto 10bis (2016-2017) involved a performance at El Reclusorio Norte, a Mexico City prison. Dressed as a quinceañera, she danced with inmates, employing physical touch as a means to challenge the institutional barriers designed to isolate incarcerated individuals from the broader populace.

The Institutionalization of Performance Art and Its Collection Processes

Since the early 2000s, major museums, cultural institutions, and private collections have increasingly embraced and supported performance art. Notably, Tate Modern in London initiated a curated program for live art and performance in January 2003. This program has featured exhibitions by prominent artists including Tania Bruguera and Anne Imhof. In 2012, Tate Modern further solidified this commitment with the inauguration of The Tanks, establishing the first dedicated spaces for performance, film, and installation art within a significant modern and contemporary art museum.

The Museum of Modern Art hosted a significant retrospective and performance recreation of Marina Abramović's oeuvre, marking the largest exhibition of performance art in MoMA's history, from March 14 to 31, 2010. This exhibition featured over twenty works by the artist, predominantly from the period between 1960 and 1980. A notable aspect was the re-activation of many pieces by a diverse group of young international artists specifically chosen for the event. Concurrently with the exhibition, Abramović presented The Artist is Present, a 726-hour and 30-minute static, silent performance where she remained immobile in the museum's atrium, inviting spectators to sit opposite her in turns. This work served as an updated rendition of a 1970 piece included in the exhibition, in which Abramović had spent full days alongside Ulay, her artistic and romantic partner. The performance garnered considerable media attention and attracted celebrity participants, including Björk, Orlando Bloom, and James Franco.

Amidst the growing institutionalization of performance art, the Bruxelles-based initiative A Performance Affair, co-founded by Liv Vaisberg and Will Kerr, and the London-based format Performance Exchange, both investigate the collectability of performance works. Furthermore, the Austrian museum and cultural center OÖLKG/OK, through its discursive festival format titled The Non-fungible Body?, explored recent developments in the institutionalization of performance, first presented in June 2022.

Collective Advocacy in Performance Art

In 2014, the performance art piece Carry That Weight, also known as "the mattress performance," was created by artist Emma Sulkowicz as part of her visual arts thesis project at Columbia University in New York City. The performance commenced in September 2014, with Sulkowicz carrying her mattress across the Columbia University campus. The artist conceived this work to protest an unaddressed rape she experienced years prior in her dormitory, which she had reported but received no resolution from the university or legal authorities. Consequently, she committed to carrying the mattress continuously throughout the entire semester until her graduation ceremony in May 2015. While the piece generated significant controversy, it also received support from numerous peers and activists who periodically joined Sulkowicz in carrying the mattress, transforming the work into an internationally recognized act of protest. Art critic Jerry Saltz identified this artwork as one of the most significant of 2014.

In 2019, the collective performance art piece A Rapist in Your Path was developed by Lastesis, a feminist group from Valparaíso, Chile. This work functioned as a demonstration against violations of women's rights within the context of the 2019–2020 Chilean protests. Its inaugural performance took place on November 18, 2019, in front of the Second Police Station of the Carabineros de Chile in Valparaíso. A subsequent performance, involving 2,000 Chilean women on November 25, 2019, coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, was filmed and achieved viral status on social media. The performance's influence expanded globally as feminist movements in dozens of countries adopted and translated it for their own protests and demands for the cessation and punishment of femicide and sexual violence, among other issues.

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