The performance boom

In the wake of Performa 09, many people have been asking us why performance has become so hot, with performance departments popping up at MoMA and other museums, and performance becoming an increasingly popular programming choice at art galleries, biennials, and beyond.

There are many answers to this, of course. The economy seems to be one major factor, because with so little money flowing in the art market, artists are encouraged by default to take more risks. This often leads to experimenting with live work—as our director, RoseLee Goldberg, has said, performance is “the avant-avant-garde.” Another might be that, as museums try to become less like libraries and more like fun houses, these institutions are looking to present artists who directly engage with the public in performances. Finally, the trend of looking back at artists from the 60s and 70s—the heyday of conceptual performance—through exhibitions, reconstructions, and the like, seems to have inspired many young artists today to delve into performance themselves—only now, instead of making performances to actively resist the model of object-centric art institutions, these performances are often made specifically for them, and welcomed eagerly.

In the introduction to the book about the first Performa biennial in 2005, which was written five years ago, RoseLee foreshadowed the current performance boom and its growing presence in art institutions:

“All signs are that we are in the midst of a strong reemergence of performance, and that the coming years are only likely to bring more. The reasons are many. In a bullish art market, performance provides relief for those uninterested in trading its commodities or those unable to decipher the auction houses’ equivalent of the financial pages. Art that allows us to think less about money and more about visceral encounters, that engages at a high level of content, that unbalances sensibilities yet provides a quiet place for thinking about the rough times in which we live, is a welcome antidote to the business of object-based art. Performance is also an amplification of the ideas of artists whose work we see in the supremely elegant architectural settings of the new galleries and museums, and gives life to these frequently overwhelming spaces. Further, the live presence of the artist, or his or her stand-in, demands the viewer’s attention, and time. In works as varied as those by Francis Alys, John Bock, Maurizio Cattelan, Patty Chang, Andrea Fraser, Paul McCarthy, and Carey Young, to name a few, which question the self and society amid turbulent societal and political change, the “live” is the most immediate and effective conduit for ideas. It provides for two-way communication between artist and viewer as well as a riveting immediacy in the passing parade of highly trafficked contemporary art exhibitions.”

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments!

–Lana