RESEARCH & PERFORMANCE: Independent Curators International

Marina Abramovic, The House with the Ocean View (2002)
Sean Kelly Gallery

FOREWORD: Increasingly Independent curatorship is where we are finding the sharp end curatorial practice. 'Institutional Curatorship' all to often is marked by ultra-conservatisim and outmoded status quo practices.  However cultural producers are embracing dynamic new approaches to their work and likewise, audiences are much better informed, and much more demanding,  than it has traditionally been assumed that they are. 

The game has been lifted by independent curators and researchers. They are blurring borders and challenging the once reliable 'safe practices' dished up by institutions. This research focusing upon performance art is an exemplar of where we might find the critical thinking.

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Performance and Reperformance
By Mariana Azevedo, Sakina Namazi, Shannon Ryan, Keeli Shaw on November 1, 2011 Posted in Dispatch
As an artistic classification, the term ‘performance art’ is fairly contentious within the contemporary art world. Over the past 40 years, the artistic practice has evolved to encompass myriad forms and titles in an attempt to adequately categorize the genre. Artists, curators and scholars readily agree there are historical sub-movements within the genre, such as body art, live art, etc., but the term ‘performance art’ has been largely accepted as the definitive term and subsequently integrated within both art historical and popular discourse. Some argue the classification of ‘performative’ is misleading and antithetical to the conceptual basis of most works done in the 1960’s and 70’s. The term portends theatricality and therefore misconstrues or alters the intentions of the work because of the association with entertainment.

So it is easy to imagine the contention and debate brought to the forefront of the art world when performance artworks made in the 1960’s and 70’s - when performance art really took off as an artistic practice - was featured within the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art in 2005 and 2010, respectively. The Guggenheim’s “Seven Easy Pieces” (2005) featured works by artists such as Joseph Beuys, Gina Pane and Vito Acconci. Intriguingly, these seminal works did not feature the original artist but rather were performed by another, an artistic contemporary who has proclaimed her intentions to take control of the genre: Marina Abramovic. She is responsible for coining the phrase ‘reperformance’ and much debate has occurred over the validity of the term, especially considering the debate regarding the antecedent term ‘performance.’ ... Click here to read more