Performance art is a performing art that, within the context of visual arts, is traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance can be prepared or improvised, spontaneous or planned, with or without an audience. It can be performed live or through media (internet streaming, video art); the performer may be present or not. It can encompass any situation involving time, place, the performer's body, or a presence in a specific medium, as well as the relationship between the performer and the audience. Performance art can be performed anywhere, in any type of space, and at any time. A specific action by an individual or group in a particular space and time constructs the work.
We must distinguish between the concept of Performance Art (or Art of Performance) and Performing Arts. Recently, the term "performance" has been used to refer to specific live events (such as theater performances, concerts, etc.) and even to the performance of certain machines, especially automobiles. Therefore, performance artists emphasize the term "Performance Art" to distinguish it from these two concepts.
After World War II, performance art rapidly developed equally in America, Europe, and Japan. Artists who used the body as a material for creation within visual arts repeatedly expressed their goals of bringing artistic practice closer to life to increase the experimental nature of their work. Their powerful statements using the body as both form and content challenged the prominence of the human subject over the object. By emphasizing the body as art, performers highlight the importance of the process over the product, rising above the representational object to a model of action presentation that expands the formal boundaries of traditional visual arts (painting and sculpture) into real-time and movement in space. By detaching art from formal concepts and the conformity of traditional forms, the relationship between artists and their audience was transformed, re-establishing the connection between art and the material conditions of social and political events.
Certainly, the origins of performance art can be traced back to the performances of the modernist avant-garde, from Futurists to Dadaists, through various Russian avant-garde movements, Bauhaus, and Surrealists. Although many contemporary performers believe that performance art has existed since ancient times, mentioning various folk storytellers, with a special emphasis on the philosophical practice of Diogenes (many consider him the ancient father of performance art). Even Kafka in his work "The Hunger Artist" mentions a practice from the 19th century that suggests the evident presence of this art even back then.
Many connect performance art with conceptual art because of its fundamental form and its association with the context of conceptual art. Performance is not theater; instead, it focuses on reality, not presenting invented actions and characters, although its performance can be narrative and thus resemble theater. Often, performance artists challenge the audience to think beyond all norms, posing the question "What is art?" As long as the performer doesn't become an actor who repeats characters and actions from one performance to another, the performance itself can include elements of satire, drama, narration, circus, games, music, and more. Thus, performance art today separates itself from visual art and becomes an intermedial art that exists independently.
Many artists in the past have used various terms such as "Live art," actionism, artistic intervention, and maneuver to describe their performances. As subcategories of performance art, there are body art, Fluxus performance, happening, action poetry, and intermedia. As a generic product resulting from the combination of performance, art games, and philosophy in Japan, the art of Butoh emerged, spreading more widely in Europe and the Western world since the 1990s.
The roots of performance art can be found in ancient rituals of tribal communities and their shamans, who represented the first artists, subjugating nature, life, and magic. Later, in ancient Greece, the Cynics, philosophers, among whom Diogenes is particularly important and was mentioned earlier, practiced a form of performance art. Diogenes, in ancient Greece, essentially practiced a form of performance art and embraced the epithet "Cynic," which translates to "dog" because Diogenes constantly behaved like a dog in his performances. For example, it is known that Diogenes would walk during the day with a lantern, and when asked what he was doing, he would reply that he was looking for a human being.
Additionally, the roots of performance art can also be observed in medieval poets, minstrels, troubadours, jesters at European courts of that time, as well as in the balls and masquerades of the Renaissance. However, the contemporary concept of Performance Art is more commonly associated with the 20th-century avant-garde art movements such as Futurism, Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Bauhaus. Celebrating everything modern, Futurist artists devised new forms of art and events led by artists, including repetitive actions, lectures, manifestos, mass demonstrations, and live artistic TABLEAUX to express the dynamics of modern life. Artists drew inspiration from various forms of entertainment, such as popular entertainment formats like the variety show (known in the West as Vaudeville, while in some regions, including yours, the term "Estrada" is used, although it has different connotations today), circus, cabaret, and opera. The role of the audience in the performance was crucial, as improvisation was often unpredictable, unexpected, and even chaotic. It was performed by painters, poets, actors, architects, critics, and philosophers, often accompanied by discussion and debate to disseminate new and diverse social ideas.
Dadaism carried out significant performances with unconventional poetry performances, often at Cabaret Voltaire, by figures like Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara. Russian Futurists are considered predecessors of performance art, with notable figures such as David Burliuk, as well as Aleksander Rodchenko and his wife Varvara Stepanova. In the 1940s and 1950s, a form of visual performance art called Action Painting emerged in the United States, preceding the Fluxus movement, happenings, and ultimately the creation of Performance Art as we know it today.
In the 1960s, the appearance of new works that embraced various forms, concepts, and a large number of artists created a new form of performance art. The prototypes of artists who explicitly used the term "Performance Art" include works and artists like Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys, Yayoi Kusama, and Allan Kaprow with his happenings. Hermann Nitsch, with his work "Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries," set a precursor for what would later become performance art. Andy Warhol, in addition to his work in film and video, presented the performance "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" in 1966, which had an impact on the preceding popular culture. Performances by artists after 1968 reflected the influences of cultural and political events of that year. During this period, performance art began to focus more on the body, giving rise to pioneers of body art within performance.
The decade of the 1970s represents perhaps the most significant period in the development of this art form. During this time, artists presented performances in a strict form. Chris Burden and Vito Acconci introduced a new radical approach. New media, such as video, became integrated into performance art. Gilbert and George, a British performance art duo, introduced a new form known as "living statues" within performance art. In Eastern European cities such as Budapest, Krakow, Belgrade, Zagreb, and Novi Sad, performance art began to thrive, giving rise to a new wave of this art form that continues to be influential to this day. In the later decades, the 1980s and 1990s, performance increasingly incorporated electronic music, new media, television, computer technology, and digitalization, while still retaining many traditional forms.
In the 2000s, performance art finally gained popularity, largely thanks to Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović. In 2010, Marina Abramović performed a three-month-long piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She sat in a chair for 12 hours a day, making eye contact with the visitors who took turns sitting across from her. This extended performance raised numerous questions and opened many doors for performance art.
Today, performance art embraces various influences and is challenging to define. New subgenres are emerging, new media are being created, and performance art is increasingly influencing popular culture. Many popular musicians incorporate elements of performance art into their music videos. Lady Gaga, for example, draws inspiration from the works of well-known performance artists in her performances and music videos. Performance art impacts commercialization, advertising, but also shapes a new philosophy of life.
The most significant subgenres include Conceptual Performance, Action Painting, Slam Poetry, Radio Drama, Happening, Fluxus, Body Art, Long-duration performance, Guerrilla Theater, Living Statues, and in recent years, Flash Mobs, combinations with Video Art, digital animation, digital platforms, as well as a return to the origins through para-ritual, Butoh, and various mixed media.
Performance art strives to develop and gain popularity as an art form of the present and future, shaping a new order for future generations.