STATEMENTS, TEXTES Varsha Nair Blemishes - This mark which signifies feminity prosperity, joy and life, can also be transformed into blemishes or blots upon our civilization. Like a bride or dancer, I use these marks in a ritual to dress me my face. Each mark is a girl-child - some live but many are destroyed. Santiphap Inkongam - Hia Long-song - Hia - disgusting things for the existance of human beings Long-song - a sudden moment of change from emptiness to actions and from actions to emptiness. Sompong Thawee - Concealing/Searching/No Truth The meaning of existence is searching. Life is filled with various stories. We try to conceal something to keep it private. At the same time, we search for something we find interesting. Some people always keep searching. However, what do we get at the end ? Searching brings only meaningless information. When we have arrived the final stage of our lives, it seems there is not truth or meaning, only death. Emptiness is somethings awaits and seems to be only constant. Paisan Plienbangchang - Moving in Moment - We are moving in that moment...the moment of the imbalance.There is neither control nor real freedom- Why ? Who is struggling ?Who is moving ? Who is giving up ? Jittima Pholosawek - City Festival - A marvelous procession starts again on this road where used to be crowded with hungry rats... Banners and colourful papers are decorated. A fanfare is striken up ! Along the footpath, people are announcing and selling things on the floor. Here you can get everything which can be dug out of this earth. Come and take it. Surachai Ekphalakorn - Mirror you Mirror me - What is it in you that can be seen in others ..........? what is it in others that can be in you...........? Michael Schaowanasai - Real time performance via internet - To stretch the meaning of performance art, I would like to put the emphasis on the art of making works. It is the experience of the artist that will reflect to the viewers, it is the act of giving an receiving. We have used everyday objects to explore the conversation between art and life. In my performance would like to turn it around and just have a conversation with you Arahmaiani Rahmayani - performance - I´m developing my own methode and concept of performance, which is open for possibilities and influences. I try to incorporate traditional Indonesian way, method and elements of performing arts: theatre; dance; and some visual aspects and performance elements from foreign cultures with my own. Dass durch Verwechslung der Zutaten schon manch namenloses Unglück entstand - tätige Diskretion, ¦Boris Nieslony Chen Chieh-Jen - The Journey Through the Buddha States 2 - Between gaze and blind Between speak and language-lost, Between listen and voice-lost. Under the constantly decayed body: I eager to find out how to build up a ferry-boat of myself Hon O-Bong - The Bird and I - I shall try to perform the act of the bird with the concept of it, purifying the demolished spirit of human-beings as well as polluted environment and the message of my performance should be delivered to the audience like this; if the bird dies, and we shall die, or if the bird lives, we will live too. Montri Teomsombat - Born Together - The issue here is the human behavior of being slaved to the consumerism. The artist searches for different forms and methods to reach the truth and the aim of human life. The work will criticize the Fashion Consumer. Clothes are consumed objects for us. They make us depend on them. Rice planted on the clothes is therefore a symbol for the life of those people who depend on the consumed objects. Khaisaeng and Surapol Phanyawatchira - performance - Khaisaeng and Surapol Phanyawatchira work together on their live-performance. The artists are inspired by the environment, the society, economics and politics. The plot and content of the performance is inspired by discussions on important issues. Then some props are used to support the idea. Mongkol Plienbangchang - Self-Immolation - The existance of the humankind is going to be terminated. Like mad people, we together destroy things. Every minute, we open our eyes with consciousness.All sensations cannot be controlled. The flames we ignited shine through the sky. As if they would like to ruin everything... Piya Visuttiiprapanont- Excess - At present, we are surrounded by so many products and ads that they become a part of our daily life. These things urge us to consume a lot all the time and keep us under control. Either directly or indirectly, they influence our life, our thoughts, our attitudes, and our behaviours. Will these products and propagandas further direct our life? Do we have to stay under this condition? Is it true? Are you sure or not? Will you accept or deny it? What would be the best solution for everyone? Seiji Shimoda, artist and director NIPAF(Nippon International Performance Art Festival) Seiji Shimoda is the most active performance artist in Japan. The field of performance art is now becoming one of the most exciting fields in the contemporary art scene in the world. He was invited in various kinds of Festivals, Museums, Theaters and Art centers in over 20 countries in the world. Shimoda is 43 years old now, born in 1953 in Nagano city, 2 and half hours from Tokyo by train, very beautiful mountains area. He entered to high-school in 1969 and that time was the last moment of student movements in Japan, like anti-Viet Nam War, antipollution, anti-system so on, like another western countries. He organized some demonstrations and meetings in his high school time. But in Japan such student movements were completely defeated in early 70’s. So he stopped to go to high school in one year and traveled inside Japan by hitchhike. Then he started to write poems. Those poems were like fantasy or dark dreams. He sometimes published them in small number books for his friends. And through writing poems, he could get some inspiration of body expression. For him, that was not dance, not theater but just performance art instead of writing poem. He had started this activity in 1975; when he was 21 years old. After that, he started to travel again in Japan with his art. In those days in Japan, there are some so-called Live Houses movement. Live House had live concerts and another events in almost every week ends. He performed so many times in such places. In 1981 he published his poetry book, the title was Coffee shops . lt was over 200 pages one. In 1982, he went to Paris with very small money and stay there for 3 months. The reason why he went to Paris was just some audience in such Live House gave him one way free ticket to Paris, because the ticket value was only 10 days and the audience had no time to use it. lt was very soon that he finished his money in Paris. Then he had started to do street performances, because he had no way to eam money to survive in cold Paris. He did nearly 100 times street performances in very cold Paris in January and February in 1983. After coming back from Paris, he started to organize some art events in middle 80’s. Like l1 min. original poetry reading tape, 1 min. free song tape, 10 min. performance festival, 21 min. chain performing arts festival, Book media perform" and so on. Many young artists, musicians, poets, dancers, film-makers etc. participated those events from many cities in Japan. Then he had started to go to Europe again since 1987. His special strong body expression was acclaimed as very high quality impressive art in western Europe. In the 90’s he enlarged his area to another Asian countries like Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Those his presentations were very shocking events there, because of his nakedness. One organizer in Hong Kong asked the audiences if someone didn’t want to see man’s naked body, he would pay back audience fee and please went back to home. But no audience went back and they all gave him very big applause. In Japan he was arrested by police twice in 1979 and 1984, because of his naked outdoor performance. In each time he fought for freedom of expression against police. But now today in Japan he is one of best well known artists in performance art scene, and his report by writing and video-tapes about performance art festivals in various countries in the world are very precious things in Japan. Now some museum asked him to organize some video event of world performance art. In ’93, he succeeded to organize first full fledged International Performance Art Festival in Japan, in Nagano, that 14 leading artists from 10 countries were participated. In ’95 &’96 he organized the 2nd & 3rd festival (NIPAF’95, ’96) in Tokyo and Nagano with 15 artist from 14 countries. In ’96 he started organize Asian Performance Art series and NIPAF Summer seminar. In 97 he organized 4th NIPAF and invited 9 international and 9 domestic artists. His new piece since ’96 „Gracias Marcos, Adios Marcos“ is dedicated late Polish - Mexican artist Marcos Kurtycz, who died this year in 61 years old by lung cancer. His piece since ’95 WHAT’S NEXT ? is like his poetry world. He use many poetry words and only small action. His piece since ’94 MY COUNTRY treated the issue of the nationalism. His well known performance ON THE TABLE was started in 1990 and treated the meaning of human gathering. This was perforrned in 20 countries festivals, theaters and museums, and acclaimed as one of the most important works in the world. Flieh . Ertrage . Schweige . Boris Nieslony Fumiko Takahashi - LISTEN TO ME - I’m interesting in the inside of human. Deep in our mind good faith and malice cross each other. I try to listen to my silent voice from my depth. I try to look for the south of inconsistency of our general life. I understand the reason why my good behavior is atonement for my malice. Qing Qing Chen, China /Austria - I want to clean up the air! - Material: hundred pieces of straw broom (with 2.5 meters long handle) l want to clean up the air! Could I ? Just with straw brooms? I hope I could! Obviously, I cannot! My brooms will be sticking into the earth and stand in the centre of the city and staring on the sky they want to call up the attention of environment pollution! Karin Meiner & Manfred Hammes - Social research - Actions Manfred Hammes - 1. LOGO, 2. Connected Karin Meiners - 1. Dekadenz... zur Erweiterung des Dekadenzbegriffs aus westeuropäischer Sicht, 2. Erlaubt - Unerlaubt Ben Patterson, USA - World Weather (a world premier) - This work attempts in a lyrical/dramatic form to project an awareness of current world weather conditions... and, perhaps, consequences for the future. As an intermedia work, it also attempts to blend traditional Eastern and Western art forms. Gestalt: What is Performance Art? http://www.happening-com.sg/performance/features/1996/august/culture/ by Decker Wu Is performance art either performance or art, or is it little more than a socially acceptable way for talentless poseurs to behave in a bizzare manner in public? At first sight, the latter alternative would seem to be the obvious answer. But give a charitable few minutes of thought and the deeper intentions of the seemingly meaningless vogueing will come through. Which is the main intention of performance art, not incidentally. Performance art is often minimalist, a live show done sans the ornate sets of a musical, the grand images of opera, or the plots that drive a play. Indeed, there is seldom even an actor in the usual sense of the word; the performance artist instead projects himself or herself. Props are few, actions are drawn out or repetitive, speech is sparse. Small wonder that many people, used to and familiar with older and more traditional forms of performance, fail to unterstand this newer art form, and dismiss it as all pretentiousness, a scam even. Performance art’s impact hinges on a psychological trait of humans: the innate tendency to look for recognisable elements when faced with apparent chaos, a jumble of seemingly unrelated items. The human mind is a great pattern-seeker; its obsession with finding patterns is likely hardwired into the brain. The artist is deliberately minimalist, giving a minimum of cues and hints to the meaning and motive of the performance. lt is the job of the audience to fill in the gaps, to put the pieces together so as to see the picture whole. Notice how the traditional role of the audience member has been changed. No longer passive spectator, but now active participant in the unfolding action. A huge (forgive the language) paradigm shift. (So despite the mind’s natural propensity to look for patterns, why do so many people fail to appreciate and unterstand performance art? Perhaps they’re not used to usi Happening Performance Features Ray Langenbach - THE PERFORMATIVE - DOCTRINATION - MODEL - PIM - THAILAND First presented at the Performance Art, Culture and Pedagogy Symposium at Penn State University in November’96 (http://www.cde.psu.edu/C&I/PACP.htnü), The Performative Indoctrination Model generated considerable controversy. Excerpts from PIM were subsequently presented at Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan, December 1996, and in the complete lecture/performance has been presented at the Nevada Museum of Art, Arizona State University and Bard-Simon’s Rock College. Video documentation was shown at Artspace, Sydney, Austratia in 1997 and a live version is scheduled for 1998. Video Documentation of PIM is available through the address/fax/email above. PIM falls into that category of performance that has grown out of the merging of cultural theory and performance art. In a nutshell, PIM theorizes the performative through the performance of theory. Appropriating the work of Southeast Asian ideologues and artists*, along with historical footage documenting American interventions abroad, the Performative Indoctrination Model lays out a theory of propaganda and indoctrination. The theory is then applied to contemporary American foreign diplomacy and art practice. PIM offers a portrait of performance art as an integral part of the „totalized“ internal and external propaganda project of the United States. The presentation is in the form of a 45 to 60 minute monologue (depending on audience interaction) with video projection and audio complement. Whenever possible, PlM is adapted to the specific dynamics of the political/cultural milieu and language where it is presented. *especially Lee Weng Choy and Lan Gen Bah The end of performance art. Janet Pillai, Malaysian Theatre Director about PIM- See also: New Criteria Ray Langenbach, Suzann Victors, Jason Lim, Amanda Heng, Ng Siew Kuan Who shot Guy Debord ? in New Criteria - a Pictorial Supplement, Ray Langenbach, Suzann Victor, Ng Siew Kuan & Jason Lim ......When capital accumulates to a great enough degree, it becomes an image and it is this image that the French artist, Guy Debord, calls the ‘spectacle’. Meaning lives not within any image but in the charged space between viewer and image, where the viewer has become mere image as well. The simple act of seeing becomes an act of selfconsumption or what Langenbach calls ‘panoptic cannibalism’. Because this charged space contains veils of information imposed by an alienating capitalist economy culture, one can only arrive at ‘true meaning’ (if there is such a thing) through a strategy of acknowledging the alienation in the work of art. The focus of Suzann Victor’s art is the body. Her work concerns the shift between gender and body politics, and challenges perceptions of power relations in the art world and society as a whole. Victor’s work for New Criteria will feature a series of stools or highback chairs, which will carry images of genitalia and gynaecological views of an infant’s head at various stages of birth. Spurred by the women´s movement and western art-historical traditions, Victor’s work has elements of indecorous patterning and allegorises household domesticity. It is building on a groundwork for a more feminised art and more vigorous questioning of contemporary attitudes towards the different roles within life´s rituals. For Jason Lim and Ng Siew Kuan, clay is a medium to scrutinise, analyse and redefine the physical form and inner values of their art. Their point of view recalls the work of the environmental-artists of the early 70’s which maintained that any meaningful creative activity should put both the artists and the audience/participants in touch with nature in special ways. This first-time collaboration between Ng and Lim at The Substation is an engaging ‘sculptural event’. With the entire inner end of the gallery covered with a mixtureof clay and grog, the artists and audience are invited to fashion container/vessels which are to be housed on shelves, placed midway in the gallery also serve as a screen demarcate the „activit“ /working space from the passive space in the other half of the gallery. At this side, Lim and Ng will arrange and manipulate polaroid photographs ofthe actual interaction that will take place throughout the duration of the installation...... Contact Ray Langenbach: e-mail xray@pacific.net.sg Amanda Heng - "Washing Exercise - Washing Exercise“ presents an hour’s task/performance to examine the issue of cleanliness and its social, political and cultural implications in the context of Singaporean society where aggressive pursuit of cleanliness has became a national obsession in pursuing the status of the cleanest and most effizient city in the region. Viewers’ participation is essential for the performance. They are invited first to check their look carefully in the mirror, and then think of something dirty while the artist engages herself in the task of washing. The dirty thoughts are recorded on paper and soaked in detergent. Questions on the link between cleanliness and control, public space and individual rights are central to the performance. Following text from .New Criteria III, dialog with Siew Kuan and Amanda Heng about on collaboration .......Siew Kuan: No, I don´t think so. I tend to approach art from a formalist angle. If I were to try and say something it will be when I have honed myself enough to say it in a subtle way or through some sort of satire. That kind of approach I will adopt rather than open confrontation That I will do only if the situation becomes so critical that it warrants an open confrontation We really have to sit and think and weigh out what the whole thing means: how you think, how you feel at that point of time. If everything is not so politicised then sometimes coming in to rock the boat just to make some noise - I don’t know if that is really wise. Sometimes you don’t have to say what you have to say with loud actions. Amanda: I think that depends on the individual’s personality Siew Kuan: Definitely. Amanda: Is there any difference to you between collaborating with a woman or a man? Siew Kuan: I don’t think it’s so gender specific, but you could always argue that a man has certain sensitivities and a woman has certain sensitivities. I know you tend to take a very feminist stance on things but working with you, I did not so much see you as female, it was more about seeing you as a Person, and the same thing with working with Jason. It is based more on personalities than on gender. I want to add that this is not just a collaboration between me and Jason. The whole ‘New Criteria’ thing is also working with Ray and Suzann. Amanda: So you see the whole project as a collaboration. Siew Nuan: I think it is a sort of partnership, a sharing of responsibilities. You come to it with certain inputs and I come with certain inputs and the audience comes with certain inputs. Inevitably, just like performance art or any collaboration that allows this kind of process, there is always the question of who is in complete control? Amanda: That’s right. This is precisely what performance art is; it’s about challenging traditional art practices. It is basically trying to decentralise the control of power. Amanda Heng is a practising artist. She is currently working at the Substation as a Programme Executive. Josef Ng - josef,josurf @ pacific.net.sg Greetings, I am sure that sending u the artist’s statement has been somewhat of a late thing to do now. Nevertheless, l will still send snippets of what I might or present at the show. 1. The rehabilitation of many problems surfacing around in these regions has caused internal stress among many individuals. The most causing effect is the water woes and the currencies turmoil in the south east asia region. The collection of some water and ‘shui’ (water in cantonese and a slang for money) will be carried out in audience participation with me and my body. thank you. josef Marianne Tralau - installation Bangkok - I intend to wind 10,000 meters of red thread around an object that is firmly anchored to the ground (a small house, a pillar, etc ... ) in open air. I call these bound objects myriametric objects. The ‘myria’ is an ancient Greek mathematical Definition for 10,000, hence, 1 myriameter = 10,000 meters. The red thread is a continuation of my textile art, which I began with weaving in the 1950s and then expanded into using all kinds of textiles as both medium and subject matter of my art. I have sown flags under the motto „Art Outdoors“, photographed a series of pictures of laundry hanging out to dry, created textile objects and constellations from laundry, and formed ‘landart’ in Ireland and Corsica using a 68 meter long red cloth. Rolf Hinterecker, Austria - Final decision“ Bringing my longbord (surfboard for wave-riding) from Chiang Mai where I surrounded the old city Chiang Mai on the water channel I will continue with another outdoor performance in Bangkok. Also in Bangkok I have been watching the waves for many hours, days, weeks. I know this place since years but I never felt strong and good enough to risk the tube* *There are many words from the special Surf language. For example a tube is a wave which is so fast and powerful that it is building a hole inside. There you can surf/ride along the green wall inside to the end of the tube. lf you are fast enough, the wave is perfect and your ride is good, you may leave the tube at its end without problems. lf not... Knopp Ferro - performance-concept-statment Bangkok The subject of the performance is the artistic process of transformation: from the creation of a work of art to its dissolution The process by which art materializes and, with the help of transformation, dematerializes. The stages of this performance are: Image - Orientation - Word - Action, Plans of Interrupture - About Knopp Ferro, Baits and Blow Torches. For no obvious reason Josef K. was arrested one day. lf the intention would have been evident to him, K. would have done his best to prevent his own execution. lt wasn’t. What might have motivated Knopp Ferro to drag a heavy, loud rattling iron box through downtown New York, with complete unconcern for the puzzled looks of the bypassers ? At the same time he is drafting’plan’drawings in black ink, in which the course as strategical conception and the aesthetic of drawing coincide in the same item. Lines, small areas of color, characters irnitating sounds, symbols, signs and sometimes even words or short passages, spin a fine net to catch the viewers eye in a maze of picture riddles. However, contrary to the principle of having to decipher the rhethorical images of a picture puzzle, the transported states of Knopp Ferro’s mazes can be grasped optically, i.e. directly visuallised. As notes on a sheet of music, a crescendo unravels from these apparently abstract signs and lines, which seems to have an individual as well as an universal validity. And in the same way as a tune can create an invisible body of resonance, the artist’s net of lines outlines a spherical magnetic field, which weaves the rhythm and space of life into the picture as energetic Potential. When the undefined is fixed within an image, hidden forces are anticipated and reveaied. The transposition of their inherent creative and destructive energies inherent into three-dimensionality thus remains most consequent. Knopp Ferro has literally welded some of his signs and messengers of rhythem and movement out of sheets of iron. In the 70’s the legendary artists group ‘Jet Ferro’, founded by Knopp Ferro, used the transformation of everyday items into metal to show estrangement. Today, however, this transformation conveys a self-concious idea of the artistic elements and from time to time employs an actionistic grasp into space. In an extended idea of the dimensions, the 3 foot long, welded iron line seems to be derived from drawing, its appearance being light and etheral, and thus unifies concrete and abstract space. In doing so, it does not at all rigidify to iron-bound statics, but catalyses and directs the movement of the concrete enviroment. Knopp Ferro emphasises the evolution of the dynamical element in a most practial way by placing some of his objects on wheels, and or small vehicles. Various elements are suspended on fragile and extraordinary thin iron rods, left to float in free space like antennas. They are set into motion by the slightest current of air or a gentle touch as if being pulled by silken strings. A carefufly tuned iron counterweight regulates the stabilty of the subsequent revebrations and one would not be astonished at all, if the wheels would start to move all by themselves. In the same way Knopp Ferro’s performance die is cast (Stadtmusem, Cologne 3/96) is motivated by this concept of subsequent progressions and the constant violation of exterior and interior limitations. Acoustic enticements act as counterparts to corresponding images appearing in the form of small ‘feelers’ -made of wire and a drawing- which are distributed in the room. Videos, containing previous performances and drawings that have been filmed, are projected in full size on the wall on which, at the same time, the artist affixes sculptural objects. Sounds and,images of the past and the present intermingle until they lose their seperate identities. The performer’s figure throws shadows on the wall with the projected images, while he himself becomes part of the screen. Synaesthetlc’coincidencia’penetrates the room. lt is a baroque orgy of the senses, of tying and untying in which the elements seem to be involved in a secrete dialogue. With alternating tenses the media of expression changes, causing a constant fluxuation of space and the plane itself The dissolution of linear structures enables new visions and constellations that express time as space and activity as a rule of passiveness. Opposing principles, acting simultatiously, load the ‘feeler’ objects with vigorous energy. The creature-like concrete items of abstraction crane their level heads- with the drawings on top-into space, just as a butterfly pierced on a board. They seem to emerge from a space between spaces and evolve by the function of sending and receiving impulses; they always seem to be ready for take off into another reality. When landing they will spare noone and nothing and they choose to beseige neglected items of everyday life, romp on screens or nest in a niche of the wall. Within the’bait’drawings the coinciding of different levels acts as an eye-catcher. Posing plain and insignificant, the delicate ink drawings sound the attack, attempting the viewers assassination. Without a sound temptation ropes down from nowhere and aims a lasso at its victim, leading him to the hidden fountains of incarnation. This playfully subversive way of handling concrete items, that has been characteristic of objects made of iron in the 70’s, has now reached a new level in the light-footed game of abstraction. Now the initial basis of the works is to create a world that lies beyond the picture and that reaches towards the world of items, incorporating them subject to its own laws. Handling the perspectives autonomously allows the intervention of subversion - a child’s play.’ „You only have to change the direction“ said the cat to the mouse and bit its head off You only have to visualise the vibrations when they approach for landing, said Knopp Ferro to Josef K. and winked an eye with the flendish grin of a rogue, whose shoe constanly pinches to dance against the current. With golden slippers he sits on an ice floe and marvels at that the freezing surfaces growing together - to- just in case- help with a blow torch. Uli Seegers, January 1997 Translated by Silke Thomas Boris Nieslony - performance - Bangkok 10 (maybe 12 ) Daily Life Plots Koan The images behind the images in front of the image. This last images, the questions in itself, are the energetic points in the movements in my life and art, my definition of performance too. Lisa Cieslik - Erste Performance Konferenz Asien - Bangkok - performance For the Goddess and the Gods Text: M. D. Daly In times as arts is degraduated to a simple matter of taste and the objektive character of a piece of art appears almost without any value it seems to be extremely difficult to give the appropriate importance to the matter discussed. At times as the Kausalneurotiker, as the representative copy and modern archetypus of the westem high-tech-society, ruled by mediocrates, who transfers all essential matters on the outer, appearance and even the word is separated from its magic contence, it seems to be more than ever necessary to set up the question how far art as an adjustable connecting link between spirit and human nature is of any importance at all and what kind of creative expression could be able to fullfill the expectations of a new era. At the beginning of the century Futurism, Dadaism, Cubism and Surrealisin thought to destroy the common Tradition of painting, literature and music. Especialy the surrealistic group has found new significant possibilities in application to Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytic studies. The dream, as a liquid element of the irrational, went up to be the dominating maxime. The subconcios, up to this point officaly negociated by science and society, was put on the throne of a ruling god. Autonomous writing and painting became methods to visualize invisible and mysterious contents. The reality of the concrete already statted to crumble. The total Liquidation of the „object“ followed consequently and lead to the konstructivistic movement, whos representatives worked on the composition of shape and colour. So did Malevitsch and Rodschenko, two russian konstructivists, who abstracted from nature in toto. But still artwork was determined to a elitary group of creating artists and collectors under public exclusion. Strategists of market defined direction and quality, the individual artist was received by economy, buisiness trade and industry. At the beginning of the sixties a bunch of people was constituted around a russian emigrant,who called himself George Maciunas. Their aim was to build up a synthesis of life and arts as part of the creative process and to become independent from the conventional narrow frame of galleries and museums. They called themselves Fluxus-Artists, a notation pretendedly adapted from the latin word fluctuare, flowing, in connection to Heraklits flowing cosmos. The materials they used in their work were chosen out of profane garbage products, such as empty cans, objects Andy Warhol later used in his Pop-Art work, boxes, nails, matches, clamps, cramps, brackets,coffeefilters and many other ordinary products of household. Essential was indeed the first concious attempt of cultural exchange, as a great number of foreign artists joined the group in New York, so as Nam Jun Paik, Shigeko Kubota, Mieko Shiomi, Takako Saito and many others, who were invited to come to N.Y. for an exchange visit. George Maciunas himself has been planing to build up a permanent collective farm in Japan, with the idea to grow food and vegetables and to prepare Fluxusevents. New ideas about the Kollektive artwork, the environment, appeared in the same time and were transposed in Happening. The great advantage of Happening seemed to be, that the observer could take directly part at the events as a active member and could participate in the piece of Art. The roots of Happening are to be found in the experimental theatre, proceeding from the Futurists and the expressionistic theatre, where already a big number of painters took part in the stage design. Al Hansen, a former Fluxus-Artist, who already died in 1995, characterizes Happening in his book primer of happening as a theatre collage, which distinguishes from the ordinary, formal Broadway theatre because of its high share of improvisation. So he shows at the example of the Hallstreet Happening, which took place in N.Y in 1964, how performer and audience have been melting into one annother and how they have been cooperating in an acceptable way. The arrival of cops and the chaos of romping children was conciously embraced in the whole procedure and lead to a synthesis of the conciously planed and surprisingly unexpected. Personalities like Al Hansen, Dick Higgens,Jackson Mc.Low, Alan Kaprow, Tomas Schmitt and many others used the benefit of the spontanious, completely unplaned Happening, where absolutely nothing was settled. So Al Hansen says : The happening is a collage of situations and events occuring over a period of time in space. In this case, any kind of ordinary situation, shaked by the unvorseen, unexpected, putting the ordinary consumer in panic and fear, can be seen as a happening. In the same time could the exchange of roles between performer and audience be provoked, like in John Cage’s quiet piano piece, where the spectators changed into active performers by movingt their chairs, going into the restroom or leaving at all. No chronological sequence exists, nobody knows what is going to happen next. Out of the Happening, which was a collective event grew the solo performance, as the more or less individual variation I would say, that solo performance renders the absolute authentic reflexion of the present outside the usual continuum of time and space. The question how performance art is seen in relation to other medias in modern art is very difficult to estimate, but certainly more and more artists operate in this field since the beginning of the nineties. The attraction is probably based on the auratic presence of the performer who is annabled to operate in a kind of work in progress sitution, where the spectator takes part in the concrete evolution of the project. Therefor the real interactivity on both sides is possible if not neccessary. One can say, that performing art constitutes a strict polarity to the electronic medias. Cyberspace, the creation of virtual worlds in the field of electronic medias are booming in western Europe since the beginning of the ninties. The digital circus of medias, the arena of a decadent consumer society, reflects as the exact pattern of the antique roman „panem et circenses“. Indeed performance art constitutes the auratic polarity to the sterile screen and picture of the computer, which appears without any authenticity, according to Walter Benjamin in "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner Reproduzierbarkeit" But however, the question about quality is not if the operation is digital or analogue, but in the suitable application of the particular media - as a band of transportation..... The ritual character according to performance art results out of the entanglement of action and reaction between performer and spectator. Because the discussed subject has not been taken into consideration of the official curriculums in public art schools, the idea was picked up into the manifeste of the Ultimate Academy, established by Lisa Cieslik and Al Hansen in 1987. It was supposed to be a free academy, not bounded to the narrowminded rules of usual art schools. It has been planed to set up courses in fotographie, painting, installation and performing art. This thought was extended by young Cologne artists, who decided to use the premises as places for exhibitions and who wanted to build up a „miniinstitute“. The idea of a free university, set up by Joseph Beuys, should be realized there, with each person beeing a professor of his own. The work of Heinrich Lüber In his work, Heinrich Lüber combines elements of performance art with photography, video, computer generated images, installations and object art. Lüber creates a quasi experimental situation by combining all of these elements and employing his own body to transmit a new image using visual and acoustic signals. Language and the use of language are central to Lüber’s work. Fragments of children’s language, ritualised speech, body language, and „perte parole“ are employed outside their contextual meanings. Elements of monotogue and dialogue are utilized to create a tangible basic form of language. Articulation is turned inside out. Following the Tradition of modern language criticism. Lüber tries to create a sensual experience for the spectators expressing the impossibility of a uniform comprehension or perception. This could be seen in the work „Guide Langue“, presented in the Kunsthalle Basel in 1995, in which the public were invited to look and listen inside the performers throat using a camera and a microphone that threatened to choke him. Lüber reproduces the dissolution of language or the beginnings of language; this main theme is then contrasted with the rhythmic speech of two „rappers“ singing a cappella at the front of the presentation. „Guide Langue“ enables us to approach several of Lüber’s works such as „Bambini Code“ (1994) or „Wolfgang“ (1995) that deal with communication outside a defined code. These works start with a message that the listener finds irritating and it is through this that new forms of understanding are brought about. Thus this new idiom gains in tangibility and a directness that has been lost in spoken language which is tied to its „meaningfulness“, its necessity to cling to fixed meanings. Some of Lüber’s works are characterized by variations on a single idea or a section of an performance action: as for example seen in the body projections in „Beutelform“ (1994), or in „In Echt sehen sie ja ganz anders aus als in Wirklichkeit“ (1995), placing the emphasis on a body or a series of works rather than single unique creations. This method of working allows him to approach each work a new depending on the space, the light and the time of day in which it is presented. The work that Heinrich Lüber has created in collaboration with other artists is tempered by a miriad of truths rather than being limited to a single possible truth. This search for a way of presenting multifarious views and diverse opinions in a single work is reffected in „Bocca della verita“ (1991 ) in collaboration with Stefan Dähler or with Karin Roth in „Transitown“ (1992). So, it is with this in mind that the public becomes the only imaginabie continuation of this art form, it is their experiences that give the single actions a fixed place in our memories, and the images their respective place. Sabine Gebhardt 1996 translated by Linda Cassens PERFORMANCE INDEX, September 21 - 24, 1995, Warteck, Basel, Switzerland Performance Index, a four-day performance art festival produced by a group of artists (organized by Heinrich Lüber and Karin Roth, Basel) included nearly forty different events. One aim, as described by Lüber, was to explore performance as a social body, „ ... how do Ifeel as somebody who does performance and what if I were to stretch this feeling like a huge skin over the group?“ Other aims were to bridge a Generation gap and initiate contact between an older Generation of performance artists and a younger one; to provide exposure for new Swiss artists; and, to support discourse in general. Participants were from Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Canada and the U.S. A few lectures by artists and theorists were included in the program. This was not meant to create a seminar, but rather to fuel the discourse, i.e., the small talk while waiting outside in the foyer or at the bar. Most events took place in the Warteck, a registered historic (late nineteenth-century) center piece of the former Warteck Co. beer brewery which once covered the entire block. The building was only recently redefined as an alternative arts center and is thus in a charming condition of decay and renovation. Events took place primarily in three rooms of distinctive character still called after their former brewery functions. (Other works took place in the elevator, in the cellar, and on an outdoor terrace. There were also works at a gas station, in the city, and one performance was a daily, four-hour live radio coverage of the festival transmitted to a Zurich station.) The Sudhaus (cooking bran) is the amphitheater of the Warteck. A long hall three-stories in height with a platform balcony at one end (used as the café-bar), it was once the brewery showcase — a magic chamber behind a window wall with huge copper tanks, no fonger in place, and colorful tile murals and floor. One flight up and down the hall past the canteen is the Kaskadenkondensator (cascade brewing water condenser). In this 30' x 40' concrete-surfaced room there are no windows. The prime feature is a full-length, 15' wide x 10' deep pit. A further flight up, the "Stiller Raum " (cleaning water) — about the same size but with a higher ceiling — has been designated as a permanent neutral space. Other than its new window, the room is as it was with no new fixtures (not even electricity). Formerly open to the outside, there is a special charm in its pealing walls which resulted from exposure to the elements. Heinrich Lüber (Basel) and Ute Ziegler (Berlin) In Echt Sehen Sie Ja Ganz Anders Aus Als in Wirklichkeit (In the Real, You Look Completely Different than in Reality) was a juxtaposition of an animated image and a philosophical text. Lüber paced on an automated walking machine with a 30-ft. white fabric stream stretched in tension from his back to the wall. On his front side was a motion projection of his walking from the back side. As if walking in two directions at the same time, Lüber’s countenance became a meeting place for past, present and future. Lüber mumbled to himself as he paced while Ziegler, seated at some distance away at a table and lit by a spot, read in measure with the turning of her pages. The title of the work was taken from a comment by an elderly woman to the TV-showmaster and actor Hans Joachim Kuhlenkampf upon meeting him face-to-face following his performance in the theatre. In herjumbling of language, she revealed a basic confusion in perception, Mr. Kuhlenkampf’s more-real-to-her presence on TV and his incredible (and unbelievable) materialization in the flesh-and-blood. Ziegler spoke about the power of the pictorial in determining perception and how new technologies (e.g., photography, film, microscopy, computers, etc.) influence perception. Into the philosophical text addressing perceptions of reality and the use of modeling in scientific theories, Ziegler cut in quips about the radical constructivists, DNA, and quarks. She suggested that the more technology we have, the less we know and any reality by one person’s terms might be another’s fake. LindaCassens for p-form, 1996 Performance Index - http://home.thing.at/performance-index/indexlinks.html Basic! Carola Willbrand - My sculpture work - The subject of my sculpture work is the „Container“. The Container is a solid body with a hole in it - as a vase for example. This is a well known form for everybody all over the world since a long time. No matter in what culture or in what part of the world - Asia, Afrika, Europe - the human race formed very similar Containers to preserve food (for example) at the beginning of mankind’s history - the Container - the first sculpture. These Containers, I make, have solid bodies with a hole in it, but their substance is not material, it’s the spirit and the space of „sculpture - thinking“. The stuff, I use to build the Container, is cloth, tissues (most of all worn dresses by my family, my friends); I sew the form and make them firm with glue. In the performance I show the connection between the Container and the human body, I put my head, my hand, my foot in it. I show the sculpture to the audience and sometimes when people are very calm they can hear a little noise.... To Thailand I will bring plastic bags ( containers too) from Cologne, which would be produced at Asia and in Thailand. I will find new plastic bags and I will sew them together to a plastic-bags-performance-installation. Plastic bags are well known for all of us. They will be used in all cultures today; so may be plastic bags are something what unit us. Die Lektion Über den Zeitraum von ca. 15 Minuten flüstere ich, spreche ich,
hüstele ich, stöhne ich, singe ich, schreie ich, kreische ich das Wort Perfonnance
perforrnance peeerforinance perfoorman’e performaance PERFORMANCE
PERRRRRRRRRRRRRRMANCE PERFORMANCE PERFOOOOORMANce PerForManCe
perrrrrrrrrrforrrrrrrrrrrmance performance performance The lecture I will whisper, I will speak, I will cough slightly, I will
groan, I will sing, I will cry, I will scream and shriek the word performance performance Hitomi Oguma introduced about the Japanese term ichi go ichi E one life one meeting |
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