performance is a form of contemporary art that is characterized by activity and ephemeralism rather than static and constancy. This art is designed to directly attract the audience both through the overall picture of what is happening, and through the actions of the creator.
What is PERFORMANCE - meaning, definition in simple words.
In simple terms, performance is non-standard performance ( action), which combines events that are rather strange, intriguing or shocking to the public. As an example of the most notorious performances, we can cite the punk prayer service of “Pussy Riot” or Pyotr Pavlensky, who nailed his genitals to the paving stones on Red Square with a nail. Thus, we can say that the performance, due to its shocking component, is designed to evoke and create.
essence of performance.
This type of art is designed to evoke very strong feelings from the audience. Performance is often resorted to when the author needs to disseminate and publicize some important idea or problem. Although, there are situations when performance acts as entertainment. For example, a person can in some unusual way play a musical instrument in the middle of the street. It can also be considered a performance.
performance and history.
The term itself was coined in the 1960s, but the roots of the movement date back to the turn of the last century. The idea of art goes back to the iconoclastic futurists and constructivists who worked in the years leading up to World War I. Inspired by the rapid pace of technological change, these artists often worked in alternative media. They used unconventional methods to elicit a reaction from the audience.
You are walking down the street and suddenly you see two sculptures in front of you, frozen and as if lifeless. Someone puts a coin in a hat lying right here on the sidewalk, and the sculptures come to life. They perform a dance or make some kind of movement characteristic of the characters they represent, and then freeze again. The performance (performance) is not over while the sculptures are here, it continues, it just passed into a static form.
"Performance? What is this?" - you ask. This is one of the areas of contemporary art. It arose in the sixties of the last century, when stereotypes were broken in all areas of human life: art, politics, social and interpersonal relations. Many new trends in philosophy, cinema, fine arts, music appeared just then. As for contemporary art, at the same time there appeared currents similar to the direction of "performance art" in terms of the form of presentation - actionism, happening and others. What do they have in common, and how do they differ?
To begin with, let's figure it out, a performance is a short artistic or theatrical action that is taking place at a given moment in a given place and is performed by the artist himself or by a group of participants. It differs from the theater in that the participants in the performance do not play learned and rehearsed other people's roles. They act within the framework of the character or group of characters depicted by them, "live" it. They do not have written roles, but the plot, as a rule, is present. Another distinguishing feature of this trend of contemporary art is the central role of the person representing it. If someone has a question: "Performance - what is it?" - we can safely answer that this is primarily the performer himself, his body, gestures, additional attributes in the form of costumes, props and other expressive means. This is the main difference from the fine arts, where the object of representation is a canvas or sculpture. In addition, unlike classical art, the perception and understanding of performance does not require special intellectual preparation, it is designed for any passer-by who looked, was surprised and went further, without thinking about how to classify this action, who was its founder and what will be consequences.
The closest associates of this kind of representation are actionism and happenings. We already know about the performance, that it is a theatrical action of the artist, which does not pursue any specific goals and does not require the direct participation of the public. This is its main difference from happening, which is possible only with the active participation of the public. Happening is only “started” by the artist, and what will come out in the end depends on the spectators-participants.
Actionism is a direction in contemporary art that focuses not on the fruit of creativity, but on creativity itself, on the process of creating a work of art. An artist paints in front of an audience, a musician steps on musical pedals, and music sounds from under his feet, and so on. Gradually, actionism underwent changes and merged with politics and outrageousness. Today we see a lot of outrages called "artistic actions". One of the most famous and resonant of them is the “trick” of the Pussy Riot group in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It was a protest action carried out through musical and visual means (multi-colored tights on the heads, the use of musical instruments, the recitation of certain political texts). Therefore, the girls believed that they were performing an action in the spirit of actionism, what came of it, we know.
The described directions (actionism, happening, performance) in art are perceived differently. Both supporters and opponents give weighty arguments in favor of their positions. Perhaps the only worthy judge in this dispute will be time, which will put everything in its place. Let's wait a little...
Performance, it is worth referring to authoritative sources. According to the dictionary of pictorial terms, performance (from the English performance - “performance”, “performance”, “play”, “performance”) is a short performance performed by one or more participants in front of the public of an art gallery, museum or in the open air.
This form of modern art in the late 1960s, incorporating elements of theater, poetry. But for all its eclecticism, the performance has a number of features that make it a completely independent phenomenon of today's cultural life.
Distinctive features of performance as an art form
A performance is a planned action. It assumes the presence of a certain scenario in which everything can be thought out, including the slightest movements. The action becomes like a game, the rules of which are determined by the artist himself.
The artist is of particular importance in action. The author of the performance tries on the role of a certain character and chooses a certain behavioral model that helps to express the idea of the performance.
It assumes that the viewer is not involved in the process. An outsider does not become part of the artistic action, but remains an observer.
The performance protests against traditional artistic principles, does not require the viewer to perceive it from the standpoint of conventional art. The action often has an ironic, parodic beginning, aimed at shocking. This expresses the radical aesthetic position of the artist.
Notable performance artists and their work
One of the most famous performance artists of our time is the Yugoslav artist Marina Abramović. She began her career in the late 1960s. This period includes the first experiments with sound and space. However, her collaborations with the Dutch performance artist and photographer Uwe Leisipen, better known under the pseudonym Ulay, brought her real fame.
A striking example of the joint work of Abramovich and Ulay is the performance “Relationships in Time”. The artists, sitting with their backs to each other, braided their hair and were in this position for 16 hours. All this time there was no one in the gallery hall except for its employees. At the beginning of the 17th hour, when Marina and Ulay were already pretty tired, spectators were invited into the hall. The artists managed to hold out for another hour, after which the performance was completed.
Related article
Performance has become a popular genre of contemporary creativity. Performance is an art form in which a work of art consists only of the actions of actors at a certain time and in a certain place.
The performance first appeared in 1952. John Milton Cage is considered the founder of this direction of art, who performed "4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence" on stage.
Action outside of time and space
This form of performance appeared as a result of the street performances of the Futurists, the Bauhaus theater and the clowning of the Dadaists. The point is to overcome the space of the picture.
As a result of the work of many artists such as Chris Burden, Joseph Beuys and many others in the 60s. of the last century, performance has become a new trend in the world of art and creativity. However, it did not last long in the West, and by the end of the 1980s, the development of conceptual action had completely ceased to exist.
- For a Western person, performance has become a genre of folly and artificial play, where the artist is free to start and end the action at any moment favorable for him.
Currently, the adherents of this style are the American historian Stephen Cohen, the Serbian Marina Abramovich and some Russian ones, such as Oleg Kulik, Elena Kovylina and many others.
Art is a deep and multifaceted sphere of human activity. Differences in the perception of the surrounding world, the strength and depth of emotional experiences, their nature, as well as individual views and talents have given rise to many trends in art. A separate place among them is occupied by performance, the modern definition of which appeared in the 1960s (although the birth of this direction took place as early as the 1920s). What is hidden behind this seemingly common term?
Performance - interpretation of the term
First of all, a performance is a performance, some kind of action, focused on a public demonstration. The event has a clear organization, staging, carries a certain idea. Its basis is human actions. There are several main interpretations of performance:
- A “living” art form in which one person or several persons represent a story at a certain time and in a specific place.
- Pseudo-theatrical action, the organization and direction of which is carried out by one leader (professional) or with a group of followers. During the speech, rhetoric is most often absent, because. the idea of the production is conveyed through visual images.
- A short performance by one person or a group of people, taking place according to a previously planned scenario, the purpose of which is to awaken the emotional and aesthetic experiences of the audience and fans.
- A kind of synthesis of theater, music and props (special effects), the perception of which is made by means of a visual assessment of what is happening.
- Public performance, the purpose of which is any appeal, advertising or a certain effect.
- Advertising campaigns by artists, the purpose of which is not to present a finished product, such as a painting or sculpture, but the actual process, idea.
Performance - the main differences of this type of art
- The key object of action is the person. It is he who personifies the actual work of art. The performance can be either single or group.
- One of the main differences between this type of production and theatrical productions is the lack of pre-conceived replicas. At the same time, the scenario of the event, all movements and poses are precisely worked out.
- To perceive and understand the performance, there is no need to have special knowledge or intellectual base - any passer-by is able to watch the performance, experience certain emotions (according to individual characteristics of perception and rating scale) and move on.
Often a performance is part of such stylistic decisions as a flash mob, body art, Harlem Shake, planking.
A performance is a kind of action, a performance in which the participants try to convey to the audience a certain thought, idea.The word "performance" comes from the French verb "perfounir" and literally translates as "fully supply" and the English verb "perform" - "perform".
The first concept of "performance" was introduced in the 50s of the last century by the American composer J. Cage, his performance (the word appeared on the poster) was called "3.33 minutes of silence." However, only after about 20 years the concept of "performance" came into fashion.
Performance definitions
There are many
- A form of contemporary art in which the work consists of the actions of an artist or group in a particular place and at a particular time.
- A quasi-theatrical act, directed and performed by a professional artist, alone or with a handful of initiates - hired extras, fellow associates, usually without verbal accompaniment, or such is insignificant compared to the pictorial part.
- The art of shares produced by artists in front of the audience. They differ from all types of visual art in that the main thing is not the result of the artist’s work (painting, sculpture, material composition), but the process of this work, that is, a certain action.
- A form of contemporary art, a short performance performed by one or more participants in front of an audience, pre-planned and proceeding according to some program. The meaning of the performance is not in itself, but in the space of deeply individual, aesthetic and event experiences of eyewitnesses and accomplices.
- One of the types of contemporary art. A performance focused on audio-visual perception, a synthesis of various directions: theater, music, special effects.
- A type of contemporary art where the work is the actions of the performing artist himself or a group of artists. If in other forms of art the object is a painting, a sculpture, a moving object, then in a performance the author himself is the work.
Performance - "everyone decides for himself"
In general, the concept of performance is so flexible that any public action can be called it, especially if it is incomprehensible to average minds (the American artist D. Pollack spread the canvas and stood on it and splashed paint around him on the surface of the canvas.
The artists of the “Collective Actions” group in the forest near the river sewed a shell of a “ball” with a diameter of 4 meters from colorful chintz, stuffed it with 500 inflated balloons, put an switched on electric bell with a battery into the “ball”, tied it up and let it flow along the river, stood and admired, how beautifully the “ball” floats. The artist Oleg Kulik dressed up as a man-dog and rushed at passers-by with a growl. Participants of the studio "InZhest" depicted "real flowers" on the pavement)
Performances by Marina Abramovic
One of the most creative thinkers in the field of performance is the New York-based Serbian artist Marina Abramović.
- Then she at the Studio Mona gallery in Milan, invited the audience to do something with her body, using the objects laid out on the table. The performance was interrupted at the moment when Abramovich, already half-dressed (the spectators-participants cut off her clothes in pieces), someone put the muzzle of a gun into his mouth.
- That connected your mouth with the mouth of a colleague by a special unit. The deranged inhaled each other's breaths until they ran out of oxygen and both fell to the floor, unconscious, with lungs filled with carbon dioxide.
- That washed a mountain of bloody bones in memory of the victims of the war in Yugoslavia.
- That exchanged glance with any visitor of the exhibition, which was recorded by the camera. So she looked into the eyes of 1500 people for almost 720 hours
- Almost two weeks lived in a kind of apartment (three open platforms), suspended on the wall of the gallery. During the performance, the heroine did not speak and did not eat anything, giving all the time of the day for everyone to see. She could not go down: the stairs were made in the form of knives, sharp and already bloody.
