ART OF "BEGEGNUNG"

There is no good translation for the German “Begegnung”. It  relies a lot on the definition of “communitas” which V. Turner made in his book “From Ritual to Theater”. )
Performance Art as a  picture of events that constitutes the society - the gesture of   Black Market International

1979, I was inspired by some words and events that became essential for my  activities and led me to the Art of Begegnung.

Antonin Artaud wrote in his “Alchemistisches Theater”: “... the principal rules behave like dolphins, they rise up, show themselves for a short moment to vanish again in the deepness.” (For me that’s the merest definition of Performance Art.)
mais d´une autre réalité dangereuse et typique, ou les Principes, comme les dauphins, quand ils ont montré leur tête s´empressent de rentrer dans l´obscurité des eaux.
A.Artaud:le théâtre et son double. / idées /gallimard

George Brecht, Robert Fillou: “If you want to know something you should spend your time with somebody who knows something.

The books of Martin Buber: “Ich und Du” and “Der Balschem”.

The thought, maybe the idea is: Nothing in the world is intended or found by one person alone. This thought, which was developed out of my occupation with alchemy and the theory of Buddhism was and still is the gravitation of all my activities.

I met Fluxus, the bushmen are speaking of the dream which is dreaming myself.

The Art of Meeting can be shaped in performance art, in  installation art, conferences , living sculptures, lectures and any differnt ways in the field of art.

1975, With 5 persons we set up the communication tube archive. This work means a maximum of mental energy and information given in exchange for a minimum of materialisation. It was a mistake, but it gave me a basic sense of, maybe a new, definition of performance as art and the first step to set up a network in physical and mental shape.
In 1977, I was cofounder of the Künstlerhaus Hamburg and 1978 a cofounder of the Kleinen Ausstellungsraum,
which was at this time the space to show  installation and performance art continually in Germany.

1979 in November and December, I organised a series of exhibitions, installations, concerts and performances with the title “Two months of experimental work.” I carefully looked for the different forms of co-operation, the behaviour of couples and groups and other possibilities of interaction.
The following questions were interesting for me: What are the forms of invitation, what could be the framing conditions (padeluun & Rena Tangens) which don’t install a hierarchy in the “Begegnung” and don’t let it fall down to conflicts in relationships, to interdependencies and normal group process, but instead of these normal group problems creates new pictures? (the condition is the picture.)
Which pictures are real interactive pictures? What is the real basis of Performance Art which shows itself as a picture, which is a picture, and how can Performance Art distinguish itself from normal daily actions? (Project: Allotropy of daily life )

1978 - I met the group minus delta t, Mike Hentz &  Karel Dudeseck.
1979 - I got to know the monthly Life-Project  - Kunoldstr. 34, organised by J.O. Olbrich. 
Kees Mol stepped into my life.
1980 - I moved to the artist's run space to connect life and art (Allotropy of daily life) and I met Carola Riess. She founded the project Gästehaus (guests house) in the artist's run space which was located in the Künstlerhaus Hamburg. Engelmann lived three months with me and we created the concept for Das Konzil, for the nomads and for the pieces of emigration.
1980 - Reindeer Werk performed their piece Prediction in Hamburg and Hannover. Tordoir Narciss told me the story of "Todays Place" in Antwerpen.
The first meeting with Jacques van Poppel.
1981 - raised live-situations between 10 and 30 days. Together with the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, I organised in September Das Konzil. 70 persons (40 of them invited guests) were confronted with each other, sitting around The Table specially created for this situation. The guests had been chosen from persons, whom I had met in the projects I organised during the last three years in my Kleinen Ausstellungsraum Hamburg. The most important influences in this "Tool Group"  where Harrie de Kroon, Mike Hentz, Jacques van Poppel, Franklin Alders, Firma Bender & Nern, Bernhard Schwarz.
The Tool Group was an open, nomadic and chaotic system of Performance Art.
Parallel to that exists the Panoramagruppe (although  nomad performances), the Stil-Gruppe (talking and speech performances)  and open groups like "Quasi mythische Orte" (quasi mythic locations) who organised performance travels, which led for example to  the canalisation of Stuttgart, to the jail of Stammheim or to the highway during the daily rush hour.

1982 - in Mai I continued Das Konzil during an event of 30 days. 10 days in the "Künstlerhaus Hamburg" and in the "Kleiner Ausstellungsraum", and, at the same place, 10 days of seclusion. After this,  with Marina Kern and the Theater Dankerrt, followed an open Live-situation with two containers from over-seas in the street and in the theatres-space. First idea for a network of Performance Art was born.
In the same year "Die Schwarze Lade of the Konzil" was published for the first time. This sculpture of public interest has three sections (1997):
a. information about alternative art spaces, projects with political works, projects interaction and network ideas.
b. materials for developing ideas, definitions, pictures and objects, which are free to use in interactive projects
c. the archive of Performance Art with 500 dossiers, literature, reviews, articles etc.

1983 I gave up the artists run space to get more mobile.  With the company Bender & Nern, Marina Kern, Kyoko Shimono and Bernhard Schwarz we founded the Projektkunst e.V.. The most important effort was the installation of MOBICOBU, some containers as a mobile Live-situation which could be moved for various projects.
Founding of "Die Stifter", which organised in autumn the project "Das Fest" in Cologne.
1984 - meeting with Norbert Klassen and Zbigniew Warpechowski, I met also Raoul Marek and Res Ingold.
Since 1984 different interactive projects with different people and changing interventions. (see other biography)
The idea of an open group grows. I think of seven persons. This association should be more solid as the different groups before. (Tool-Group, etc.)
1985 - I met the theatre group THEAT and the philosophical performance program of the Aufmerksamkeitsschule of Zygmunt PioTrowski. I met Tomas Ruller, whom I invited for a performance, and Jürgen Fritz. Now we are seven.
In the discourse with Zygmunt PioTrowski, we found the name Black Market for this kind of meeting. This name should not represent the group but the principal ideas of the work.
1986 - I organised the first series of Black Market events.
1986 - I founded the performance association ASA. The structure of ASA is opposite to that of Black Market but  refes like Black Market to an idea of Das Konzil: the Service. First presentation of ASA in Bologna at the festival NO WALL. The first host had been together with me padeluun, Rena Tangens, Raoul Marek, Peter Meier, Ute Meta Bauer.
1987 - ASA and Black Market were invited to take part in documenta 8.
1990 - ASA - European is founded. ASA European organised different performance meetings and events and developes the performance art network (look at own biography)
1990/91 - changing in Black Market: Zygmunt PioTrowski and Tomas Ruller are leaving the group, Alastair MacLennan, Nigel Rolfe and Roi Vaara are joining. The new name is now: Black Market International. Corporations and meetings for examples with Neue Horizonte and different guests.
1993 - Black Market International invites 15 international artists for the performance piece Empedokles in the framing program of Documenta 9. ASA organises the project 100 days of service, the "Quantenpool Köln", with Peter Farkas, Bernd v.d. Brincken, Van Gogh TV and 3Sat TV etc..
1995 - I initiate the founding of the Permanent- Performance -Konferenz. Connections from theory with practice as performance. Since its foundation, three conferences one in Cologne, one in Hambuorg 1997 and one in Bangkok, have taken place.
Berlin 1998,  Glarus/CH and Frankfurt-Main/D 1999, Mannheim 2000 and in November 2001, the 10th one will take place in Bamberg.

Boris  Nieslony  (Translation: Jürgen Fritz)