Performing the Sentence Research and Teaching in Performative Fine Arts Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein (Eds.)
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Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna VOLUME 13 Performing the Sentence Performing Performing the Sentence brings into dialogue the ways that “performative thinking” has developed in different national and institutional contexts, within different disciplines in the arts, and the conditions under which it has developed Performing in experimental art schools. This anthology is a collection of twenty-one essays and conversations that weave in and out of the two key areas of research and teaching within performative fine art. They bring to light the conventions involved in the production, presentation, reception, and historicization of performance the Sentence art, as well as the specific cultural and political implications. The various con- tributions also show how these conventions are produced through or within each artwork, independent from their specific contexts, offering ways of thinking beyond their usual frames of reference. At the same time they recognize the Research substantial work carried out by artists, critics, and theorists who have built on the meanings, references, and implications of performative thinking since the beginning of the “performative turn.” and Teaching With contributions by Philip Auslander, Sabeth Buchmann, Margarit von Büren, Barbara Clausen, Carola Dertnig, Andrea Fraser, Sabine Gebhardt Fink, Simone Forti, Sabina Holzer, Amelia Jones, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Marie-Luise Lange, Suzana Milevska, Lilo Nein, Susanne Neuburger, Yvonne Rainer, Constanze in Performative Ruhm, Dietmar Schwärzler, Stefanie Seibold, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, Mechtild Widrich, Martha Wilson Fine Arts Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein (Eds.) Performing the Sentence Performing the Sentence Research and Teaching in Performative Fine Arts Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein (Eds.) Publication Series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Karin Riegler (Series Eds.) Volume 13 On the Publication Series We are pleased to present this new volume in the publication series of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. This book, published in cooperation with the highly committed Sternberg Press, successfully embodies the series’ concept, devoted to central themes of contemporary thought about art. The volumes in the series comprise contributions from art theory, cultural studies, art history, and research at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and form the quintessence of international study and discourse in the respective fields. Each volume is published in the form of an anthology edited by staff members of the Acade- my of Fine Arts Vienna. Authors of high international repute are invited to write contributions addressing the respective areas of emphasis. Research activities such as international conferences, lecture series, institute-specific research focuses, or research projects serve as the points of departure for the individ- ual volumes. With this book we present volume 13 of the series, putting a concept on the map of art theory that has become increasingly important and productive, especially at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Performing the Sentence: Re- search and Teaching in Performative Fine Arts deals with practices in con- temporary fine art that are tied to performance art and/or performative art practices. These ties vary in mode and in degree. This book illustrates how such practices interlink, and how they shape a history of the performative in fine art (as opposed to concepts of the performative in dramatic arts). We would like to thank the editors Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein for their excellent work in putting this book together; we are certain that it will become a milestone in the debate about the performative within fine art. The Rectorate of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Karin Riegler Contents Editors: Carola Dertnig, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein Coeditor: Lilo Nein Assistance: Dunja Reithner Introduction Editorial coordination: Christine Rogi Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein 10 Translation: Erika Doucette, Jennifer Taylor Copyediting: Jennifer Taylor, Miranda Robbins Some Exercise in Complex Seeing Is Needed Proofreading: Caitlin Blanchfield Yvonne Rainer in Conversation with Carola Dertnig 16 Design: Miriam Rech and Markus Weisbeck, Surface, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin Printing and binding: Generál Nyomda Szeged Performing Vienna Susanne Neuburger 34 ISBN 978-3-95679-053-9 Floating Gaps: Considerations on the Basel Performance Chronicle, © 2014 Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Sternberg Press Part 1 All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in Sabine Gebhardt Fink 42 part in any form. Floating Gaps: Interviews in the Basel Performance Chronicle, Sternberg Press Part 2 Caroline Schneider Margarit von Büren 50 Karl-Marx-Allee 78 D-10243 Berlin From the Document toward Material Traces www.sternberg-press.com Amelia Jones in Conversation with Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein 58 What if Life, Permeated by Art, Becomes a Work of Art? Subject Put to the Test Sabina Holzer 66 Sabeth Buchmann and Constanze Ruhm 200 Anatomies of Possible Speaking Positions: Conversation between Text and Performance Performance and Intertextuality Lilo Nein 208 Lilo Nein 76 Image Credits 212 Beyond Huddle Simone Forti in Conversation with Carrie Lambert-Beatty 84 Biographies 216 Against the End of Art History: Approaching Hesse, Schneeman, Acknowledgments 222 and Pryde with an Integrative View of Methodology Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein 96 On Curating Performance Art and Its Histories Barbara Clausen 112 Performance or Enactment Andrea Fraser 122 Understanding Is Performative Philip Auslander in Conversation with Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein 128 Is the “Re” in Re-enactment the “Re” in Re-performance? Mechtild Widrich 138 Semiotics of Appearance Martha Wilson in Conversation with Dietmar Schwärzler 148 Transformation in Teaching Carola Dertnig 164 Performance Action as an Emancipatory Metaphor for General Artistic Life Processes and Social Processes Marie-Luise Lange 174 Mind Art: On the Gradual Production of Meaning while Performing Stefanie Seibold 184 On History and Solidarity: Performative Reading of Woman’s Book by Liljana Gjuzelova Suzana Milevska 190 Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein 11 This book serves as an open plateau for future thoughts on performance art, and is the “printed, pressed, and bound” outcome of a closing of ranks by the editors over the past ten years. Our own exchange—the exchange between Introduction an artist and a theoretician—has taken various forms over the years and has its roots in the question of what happens when experience in performance art Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein is granted modes of knowledge production, of critical research, and under- standing. We have employed both the language of art and theory, constantly swapping “the exploring” and “the explored” positions. We started our investigations with tandem teaching, joint lectures, and re- search. The tandem mode has given us the opportunity to continually ask questions both of ourselves and of our students and audiences. The field of performance art, by its nature and history, has provided here the perfect con- text for continual exploration, experimentation, and discovery from various perspectives. The longer we exchanged views on performance art (history), the more we felt compelled to create an environment that allowed the broad- est exploration of scholarly acts. What might it mean to act in a scholarly way in the field of performance—not only to perform the role of the scholar in a particular institutional setting but also to question how academic identities and roles are highly performative? Because of the only recent inclusion of Ten questions for a performance art in academic institutions, current forms of teaching consti- theorist and an artist tute major areas of research. But there is an additional factor: the integration teaching performance together: of practice, research, and performance that this field investigates can mean that in particular situations, the practice of teaching becomes action 1 . To enter a lecture hall and dance? research. 2 . To enter a lecture hall and yell ? 3 . To enter a lecture hall and sing? The conference “This Sentence is Now Being Performed” came out of discus- 4 . To enter a lecture hall and cry ? sions we had over the years and are still having. We wanted to hold a sympo- 5 . To enter a lecture hall and disrobe? sium that offers a substantial contribution to an ongoing discussion on how 6 . To enter a lecture hall and perform? teaching and research can take shape and be organized within the field of 7 . To enter a lecture hall and laugh? performative art production—and on how an experimental and open-ended 8 . To enter a lecture hall and research? form of fundamental research could be generated and linked to a critique of 9 . To enter a lecture hall and box? the restructuring of science, art, and education policy currently underway in 10 . To enter a lecture hall and perform in theory? Europe. We both teach and research at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. A central starting point for our considerations was this institution’s unique posi- How do we start? How do we end? tion in leading the way for forward-looking thinking on performance within the fine arts. Over the past years the Academy has fostered a specific focus on practice, teaching, and research, based on a broad understanding of per- formance. A synergy has come about in