Sunday, October 25, 2009

PERFORMANCE ART AND ACT

Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body and a relationship between performer and audience. It is opposed to painting or sculpture, for example, where an object constitutes the work. Of course the lines are often blurred. For instance, the work of Survival Research Laboratories is considered by most to be "performance art", yet the performers are actually machines.

Performance art, as the term is usually understood, began to be identified in the 1960s with the work of artists such as Yves Klein, Vito Acconci, Hermann Nitsch, Youri Messen-Jaschin who coined the term happenings, body art, Chris Burden, Carolee Schneemann, Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell and Allan Kaprow, who coined the term happening.

But performance art was certainly anticipated, if not explicitly formulated, by Japan's Gutai group of the 1950s, especially in such works as Atsuko Tanaka's "Electric Dress" (1956). In 1970 the British-based pair, Gilbert and George, created the first of their "living sculpture" performances when they painted themselves gold and sang "Underneath The Arches" for extended periods. Alongside pioneering work in video art by Jud Yalkut and others, some performance artists began combining video with other media to create experimental works like those of Chicago's Sandra Binion, who elevated mundane activities like ironing clothes, scrubbing steps, dining and doing laundry into living art. Binion has performed all over the world and is highly regarded as an artist in Europe.

In performance art, usually one or more people perform in front of an audience. In contrast to the traditional performing arts, performance art is unconventional. Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways about theater and performing, break conventions of traditional performing arts, and break down conventional ideas about "what art is," similar to the postmodern art movement. Thus, even though in most cases the performance is in front of an audience, in some cases, the audience becomes the performers. The performance may be scripted, unscripted, or improvisational. It may incorporate music, dance, song, or complete silence. The audience may buy tickets for the performance, the performance may be free, or the performer may pay the audience to watch the performance.

“Performance has been a way of appealing directly to a large public, as well as shocking audiences into reassessing their own notions of art and its relation to culture. Conversely, public interest in the medium, especially in the 1980s, stems from an apparent desire of that public to gain access to the art world, to be a spectator of its ritual and its distinct community, and to be surprised by the unexpected, always unorthodox presentations that the artists devise. The work may be presented solo or with a group, with lighting, music or visuals made by the performance artist him or herself, or in collaboration, and performed in places ranging from an art gallery or museum to an “alternative space”, a theatre, café, bar or street corner. Unlike theatre, the performer is the artist, seldom a character like an actor, and the content rarely follows a traditional plot or narrative. The performance might be a series of intimate gestures or large-scale visual theatre, lasting from a few minutes to many hours; it might be performed only once or repeated several times, with or without a prepared script, spontaneously improvised, or rehearsed over many months.

Performance art genres include body art, fluxus, happening, action poetry, and intermedia. Some artists, e.g. the Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists, prefer to use the terms live art, "action art", intervention or "manoeuvre" to describe their activities. These activities are also sometimes referred to simply as "actions".

Main performance artists

Alan Abel
Paula Abalos
Marina Abramovic
Daniel Acosta
Laurie Anderson
Joseph Beuys
George Breelit
Alexander Brener
Stuart Brisley
Günther Brus
Chris Burden
Living Theater
Diamanda Galás
Jamie McMurray
Youri Messen-Jaschin
Charlotte Moorman
Otto Muehl
Hermann Nisch
Yoko Ono
Dennis Oppenheim
Nam June Paik
Sarrogit
Carolee Schneemann
David Sherry
Joey Skaggs
Survival Research Laboratories
Litsa Spathi
Wolf Vostell
EXIT ( entre sus integrantes: Penny Rimbaud y Gee Vaucher formaron luego el grupo Crass).
Paula Abalos
Daniel Acosta (SOS Tierra II en el Parque Hudson)
Ani Villanueva

Invisible dogs

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Wednesday, May 6, 2009


Trafalgar Square 956'438 peoples sing "Hey Jude".

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Performance in het Centraal Station van Antwerpen March 26, 2009


4,455,076 views
Op Zoek naar Maria gaat van start op vtm, en dat zullen ze in Antwerpen geweten hebben. Ruim 200 dansers hebben de hal van het station op z'n kop gezet.

T-Mobile Dance performance January 16, 2009



13,489,901 views
Watch the moment Liverpool Street Station danced to create this special T-Mobile Advert.

50 Redheads On The Same Subway Car


1'289'446 views

Flashmob Osnabrück - Kissenschlacht 28.04.07


122,851 views
Flashmob - Kissenschlacht in Osnabrück!

Flashmob München Odeonsplatz


Ca.500 Leute sind um Punkt 14 Uhr einfach eingefroren. Die Aktion dauerte 5 Minuten. Organisiert hat sich ein großer Teil der Flashmobber über Groops.de :-) An alle Münchner, das war Top dass so viele mitgemacht haben!!!

Kisses! Flashmob am Alexanderplatz!


Beim Pfiff, bitte küssen! Flashmobs, diese "spontanen" Blitzaufläufe, die seit einigen Jahren überall auf der Welt stattfinden, haben den Mainstream erreicht. Mehr Journalisten als Teilnehmer gab es nun auch beim Dauerknutsch-Flashmob am Alexanderplatz.

World biggest Freeze Flash Mob in Paris


672,078 views
This is the official video of the Freeze mob in Paris. Official, because this video is the result of what taped 20 videopodcasters, who covered the event for us. Thank to them.

Flash mob, Stary Browar Poznań 12.05.2007


459,670 views

San Francisco Pillow Fight Flash Mob


605'389 views
Minty went to the giant Pillow Fight in San Francisco on Valentine's Day 2006

Supermarket Flashmob


765,974 views
On Wednesday 14th March around 50 people attempted a mass freeze frame in a Manchester supermarket lasting four minutes. Five cameras captured the event.

The Great Trafalgar Square Freeze


3'146'956 views
The day London froze.made a reality by 100's of volunteers. At exactly 3:30pm on a secret cue, almost everyone in the square froze. The few bewildered tourists didn't know what was happening. For 5 minutes the participants held their positions, and then magically everyone unfroze.

Frozen Oslo S


About 100 people freeze in place on same time and hold for five minutes at Oslo S in Norway

Sunday, April 19, 2009

La Traviata im Hauptbahnhof Zürich - October 03, 2008


Oper live am Schweizer Fernsehen: La Traviata im Hauptbahnhof Zürich vom 30.9.2008 war das Kulturereignis 2008. Ausschnitt aus dem 1. Akt der Liveübertragung mit Eva Mei als Violetta und Vittorio Grigolo als Alfredo, Angelo Veccia als Germont, Dirigent: Paolo Carignani.

Frozen Grand Central - January 31, 2008


18,328,594 views
Over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York.

This is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include the No Pants Subway Ride, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few. Visit the website to see tons of photos and video of all of our work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made.