Performance art
 | A performance artist, with eyes closed, sits motionless for long periods balanced on an uncomfortable railing in Montmartre, Paris, France |
|  | The performer speaks and sings. On his chest and face, electrodes record his emotions, altering a live video stream. Performance from Gaspard Buma. |
|
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.
Although performance art could be said to include relatively mainstream activities such as
theater,
dance,
music, and
circus-related things like
fire breathing,
juggling, and
gymnastics, these are normally instead known as the
performing arts.
Performance art is a term usually reserved to refer to a kind of usually
avant-garde or
conceptual art which grew out of the
visual arts.
Performance art, as the term is usually understood, began to be identified in the
1960s with the work of artists such as
Vito Acconci,
Hermann Nitsch,
Joseph Beuys, and
Allan Kaprow, who coined the term
happenings. Western cultural theorists often trace performance art activity back to the beginning of the
20th century.
Dada for example, provided a significant progenitor with the unconventional performances of poetry, often at the
Cabaret Voltaire, by the likes of
Richard Huelsenbeck and
Tristan Tzara. However, there are accounts of
Renaissance artists putting on public performances that could be said to be early ancestors to modern performance art. Some performance artists point to other traditions, ranging from tribal
ritual to sporting events. Performance art activity is not confined to European art traditions; many notable practitioners can be found among
Asian,
Latin American,
Third World and
First Nations artists.
RoseLee Goldberg states in
Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present:
"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,
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.
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Art intervention*
Installation art*
Conceptual art*
Busking*
Classificatory disputes about art*
the-artists.org, performance artists and art.
*
Performa, New York City arts organization dedicated to Performance.
*
Momentum, platform for Performance Art, Brussels.
*
Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance at the Tate 
