Archive Review Learning Performance by Doing Archiving Performance Linda Cassens Stoian

Digital Archive of Swiss Performance, 1990+ and also at the same time just be themselves? In the email: [email protected] near future, performance archive-users, Stelarc- like, with their nerves hooked up live to the data What – if anything – can one bank, will be able to navigate in a sea of sensations. learn about performance But even then performance will remain, separate through archiving performance? unto itself, a thing without correspondence. If one After one year of working on the digital archive of believes, however, like Paolo Bianchi (1999a), that Swiss Performance Art 1990+ we raise our heads the fundamental condition of the archive is and take a brief break. Covered with the digital dirt movement, is process, not product, performance of CD-ROMs, Zips, emails, scans and video stills, might turn out to be one of the most difficult not to mention the spiderwebs off old postcard things to archive because it is most like the archive invitations, programmes, photos, statements and itself. press reports of forgotten works and events of the Gerhard Dirmoser’s and ASA-European’s (i.e. last decade, we ask ourselves: ‘What is the sense of Boris Nieslony’s) labyrinthine ‘diagram’ Perform- doing all this?’ The nearly 1000 painstakingly ance-Art-Context (Performance Research 6: 2), a accumulated entries of the fresh archive flicker dis- scheme of mapping performance art, demonstrates sidently at us from the flat monitor screen. the difficulty of setting up ground rules for even Theatre has its script, dance its Laban notation, deciding what performance is, a prerequisite to music its score, while the documents of perform- going out there collecting its materials. Developed ance lack the ability to gather, represent and over a number of years, their research has included thereby conserve the genre’s own quintessence. performance materials and views on performance What would be required is not only a translation of since 1948, with some material going as far back as the visible and the durational into words, but new Futurism, Dada, etc. The result of this research is devices to capture and replay the experience of available as a poster-size diagram (240cm smell, touch, taste and other senses of dimensions 180cm), which can be downloaded from a website. not yet identified. That is to say, enigmatically, even The diagram is split into 4 parts with a total of in the digital age, performance seems to continue to approximately 32 categories of performance resist being represented in the archive. ordered according to its context, e.g. live, social Unable to conserve the live, data chips provide a relations, society, humanities, philosophical compact repository for dead documents, a genre in relations, personal identities, body examinations, itself which tells its own story. A perfect archive of etc. Illustrating these contexts are 90 definitions of performance would need to be a kind of time performance art and performing arts, at least 900 machine – or, rather, isn’t the festival the true Wun- names of artists and 400 names of theorists, titles derkammer of performance, sufficient for our need from exemplary books, etc. This diagram could be to collect things so that these things can be seen interpreted as a map of the landscape that any together, where they can become new and unusual serious performance collector needs to cover. One 128 Performance Research 7(4), pp.128–134 © Taylor & Francis Ltd 2002 definition of an archive is that it has to be a unity ‘music’, etc. If we explore this notion further, for which includes everything. Yet the performance example in the case of collecting and sorting archivist, setting out to gather just one specimen of performances by costume, at one extreme would be the categories outlined in this map, might easily ‘0’ with everyday dress, and at the other extreme – become disheartened. The Performance-Art- at ‘10’ or even ‘100’, depending on the desired Context chart suggests the state of disorder that extent of the range – could be forms such as can be expected in a system in which every single Kabuki or Kathakali. Of course, this would imply a performance forms its own category, and where the Sisyphean task of gathering and registering works. diversity of the contents dissolves any unity of the Before even beginning, one would need to define collection. the various semantic elements of performance and Another kind of set up proportional guide for archiving Schema for Archive Data Input (steps 0-7) scales. But more in relation to Museum Plus Mask & Internal Links performance could be fundamentally, Allan Kaprow’s dissected into its 0/5 Ground Zero: The address Point of Entry: strategy of negation. Adresse serves as the ultimate source Received materials separate parts – e.g. [Address] reference for archived data are logged in and also as possible source here first. As combined artist and for future material. body, image, Learning Performance art historian he movement, space, pursued his own sound, smell, etc. – 3 1/6 creative work through KuenstlerIn Literatur and laid out next to [Artist] (author, [Document] (source setting it in opposition institution) reference of material) each other with their to the traditions of art labels, would such an – first painting, then archive of perform- theatre. Eventually, ance really yield up with the anti-art any secrets? Grouped 2 4 Sammlung Veranstaltung object, he ended up [Work] (performance, [Exhibition] (festival, according to common text, festival, event, event, program, etc.) cancelling his own video, etc.) features and thus work. The Kaprow already completely

archive would be the The potential for split-second links hinting at new analysed, nothing ways of putting things next to each other might space of an empty be expedited through the programming of the would be left but digital archive. Nonetheless, the ‘making sense’ mind. Richard 7 labour of the archive user still remains as the names. Michel stubborn resistance of digital information to Schechner could be Foto yield up what one is looking for. This resistance is Foucault (1970) [Photo / Video Image] no less than that of dusty parchments or silent another guide. Even objects. explains that such a more inclusive than method came into Dirmoser and •Swiss Performance Digital Archive, 1990+. The archive was created by Performance Index as contracted by being with the perforum (Seedamm-Kulturzentrum) and will be presented on-line at http://www.perforum.ch/ Copyright Nieslony/ASA, © 2002 Performance Index Enlightenment when Schechner has no the circular procession problem putting a football game alongside a of the theatrical ‘show’ was replaced with the Catholic Mass next to Internet sex games. Politi- arrangement of things in a ‘table’. cally correct, inter- and multidisciplinary, humanis- One problem with archiving performance then tic, and broad, but practical? Another possible seems to be a lack of manageable principles that reference point could be Michael Kirby. Informed could help one in deciding what is worth gathering by his involvement with formalism and semantics, and keeping, and what belongs where. According to his more reductive approach makes it initially seem Bianchi (1999a), this is a problem which is already easier to sort performance in terms of singular inherent within the process of archiving itself. It elements, such as ‘acting’, ‘costume’, ‘movement’, may be helpful in this context to remember that 129 Cassens Stoian before , d The gift of the . Museum Plus Charles and Agnes Museum Plus provided us with a lump sum us with provided , Our basic priority was that as much material as Our basic priority was that as much had to do with the biggestOur own discovery ther everything we had ever worked on, worked had ever we ther everything although ere also often event organizers,ere also often event as being as well oundation included technical by support provided udget and, frankly, our expertise. to decided We hange the terminology of the program, to but or the archive. also took the opportunity to We plus an option temporarily to use and minimally adapt a software normally institutions used by for artarchiving objects, F the software-creator Zetcom, which coached us in using the program adapting it to our and minimally aims. decided that develop- this initial phase we In software was beyond the limits ofing a new our b risk ‘learning archiving’, by i.e. more-or-less to stay structure of within the given deciding in a second needed a phase whether we different program. required At least 40 hours were figuring out the existing set-up aloneinitially for and rethinking what kind of terminology be would us.useful for It became necessary not onlyto c adapt the implicit ideologysomehow behind the masks and internal sorting functions. kind of be included without any possible filtering. ‘researchable’ was to be somehow The archive or inter-pretations without precluding new accessible in the future. this reason decided, we For after hefty debate, in labeling keywords not to use any the works. The primary filter was to be the artists and institutions themselves, who and anyone submitted material was to be included. sort function. realized that the context of We not only discrete ‘objects’performance involves but an interconnected of network activities. Artists w theorists. Therefore, to sort wanted to be able we f ga be considered a violation probably this would of the International Council on Archives’ Code of Ethics, which specifies that should be impartial’. ‘archivists Our ideology digitally sorting for the and storing material was largely determined pragmatic by necessity. Our sponsor, the Foundation Vögele c in perforum Schwarze Lade Schwarze basic body of basic body ’s : *** perforum special division of the e started our gathering process ,a b a ,w perforum tional and International Art Performance a erformance Index Festival 1995 erformanceIndex Festival erformanceIndex Publication 1995 1995 erformanceIndex Website erformance Index Publication 1997 1999 erformance Index Festival Network 1995–2001 Network erformance Index erformance tharin von (d. Alexandria 307) is the patron saint P As well as incorporatingAs well material the from •P •P •P •P •N •P erformance Art began 1990+ commission with a Ka of archivists, philosophers, speakers and the alike. drowned of Digital Archive the for The initiative Swiss P through Seedamm-Kulturzentrum in Pfäffikon/SZ, Switzerland. The utopian aim was to collect every- thing to do with performance art realized in Switzerland since 1990. was to The digital archive be a complement to based upon and activities experience our previous as research material, the legendary (Black Kit), over a unique collection assembled (see Allsopp 1998). Boris Nieslony by years many This collection had been donated to 2000 and includes documents, manuscripts, audio materials, images, videos and publications, covering performance art from 1975 right through to the 1980s. also features It some materials from the 1990s, digitalized which we and used in our new archive. Lade Schwarze More concretely, con- by network used our own we tacting artists and institutions to solicit materials Learning Performance ( Culture submitted totheFederal of Department orevents artists and requests madeby performance ( Research theSwissInstitutefor Art bank of takenfromthedata orevents, performances artists, cuttingsfromnewspapers featuring etc.); stills, video catalogues, documentation images, cards, invitation (e.g. ourselves anddigitalized sorted the tedium of soliciting materials –threeroundsof solicitingmaterials the tediumof senttousby individual artists. etc., biographies, projectdescriptions, videos, photos, catalogues, fromthe material ourmaterial: to record thevarioussourcesof We useditasaregister work. abouttheart material like acard torefer toany catalogue published ismeanttobeused (literature) ‘Literatur’ category in For example, categories. themajor deviated fromtheintendeduseof we also asdescribedabove), functions sorting withinthegiven masks(and do withterminology w itwasa if only video/slides(thelatter performance and performances events, documents/lectures, we thusincluded (collection), ‘Sammlung’ Underthecategory sortable groups. discrete, gr pro- events, but festivals, alsototreat artworks, as performances and seetogethernotonly Schweizer BundesamtfürKultur Schweizer InstitutfürKunstwissenschaft SIK ork in-and-of-itself). me n eti id flecturesandtextsas kindsof ammes andcertain ntal uhrcaottepopcs we found Initially euphoricabouttheprospects, hadto oursoftwareadaptations While mostof e f Schwarze Lade Museum Plus ;but especially ); , that wethat had the ;grant ); g developed by http://www.perforum.ch] tobe inaweb version theweb nextyear on [at forscheduled presentation thearchive is Theinitialphaseof entries tohand. We include: development, of andhopetoaddress phase inafurther encountered, we themajorissueswhich Therefore, mould. intoagivenseemed topressthelive performance thelinks themasks, theprogram, of structure ve actually seemedmoreinterestingintheirdigital (althoughsomeworks wasdiscouraging structure, ev asitwent fromlive aperformance of distortion theflattening –andthentheexperienceof tutions andinsti- persons andre-contacting contacting ent todocumentandthenintothe r • • • in) hl eamdntt itr the Whilewe aimednottofilter, sion!). have for leastanother2000 material at further qualities of performance inSwitzerland? performance qualities of trendsorspecial concerning indicators andusedas mightbetracked material What w beingthematized, archiving performance documentingand Where aremethodsof theworks? of andmediation ception (3)withtheper- performance; of generating (2)withtheactual performance; experience of (1)withthelive videos–have todo: photos, programmes, texts, catalogue portfolios, pressreports, project andwork descriptions, –statements, documenting performance dopresentmethodsof anything, if What, orked throughorreflectedupon? Museum Plus. *** h Museum Plus Cassens Stoian ’ l nly for the archivist as historian/theorist, the archivist nly for for but (Bianchi 1999b: 55; original in German). Rather than banging at the door of the history and theory of art objects, of the real work perform- archiving side- to do with discovering have ance may entrances to the backstage of a larger discourse. documents ofThe archival other disciplines, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., actually do to represent their objects,not have only but to performance is essentially different from archiving the art object in that it cannot, to date, be placed in thing itself. directly as the archivable the archive So, what other thing really corresponds to it? This is certainlypoint of an interesting departure, not o the artist as creator: ‘Out of nothing the archivist identity creates his history and secures his own k j i The means and justifications archiving for ther than product, as a process then archiving •Swiss Performance Digital Archive web page, showing the arrangement of data and image. Copyright © 2002 Performance Index © 2002 Performance Copyright image. and data of the arrangement showing page, web Archive Digital Performance •Swiss The cultural basis of the archive, to according Bianchi (1999a), claim for, is a paradoxical as well as against, history. document is The archival history, also his [her] story, but a piece in a bigger be put together.picture puzzle that can never If, like Bianchi, one considers that the overall condition of and that the is movement the archive ofreal business has to do with process the archive ra becomes the main point here. to be onlyperformance ‘official’, don’t have i.e. to try to get performance out of of the no-man’s-land the transient into the mainstream discourse of the permanent art object. recapitulate what was To suggested at the beginning of this article, archiving Learning Performance performances which never which actuallytookplace.performances ( photographs producedaseriesof andteacher, artist performance British Hayley Newman, leap intothevoid, archivist. privileged fieldfor theartist- instead asaspecial, andberecognized itsown paradoxical condition of mighttakeadvantage performance Rather, plines. thesevery disci- leastquestion aims todefyorat especiallyasitgenerally documents, these surplus P convenientlyobject which standsfor itself. tothe inaddition language provide of asurplus Spiral Jetty his Robert Smithson’s documentaryfilm of artist. thecontemporary of an underlyingpreoccupation Archiving andbeingarchived as canbeinterpreted H archive becausewe speakwithinitsown rules. itisnotpossible todescribeour own (1972) asserts, AsFoucault itsown objects. of entails thenegation inherently asinthearchive, ordering reflection, intuitively any that understands processof who theartist-archivist self-reflective of paranoia the Thisscene demonstrates camera. aircraft-born hisown by artwork chased along thedocumenting, runs Smithson by ischased aplane, protagonist Hitchcock’s film Re-enacting ascenefrom mentary process. o nly on the artwork but upon the artistic docu- theartistic theartwork but upon nly on erformance doesn’t needtomimeticallygenerate erformance owever, ieYe li’ naosdcmnaino his Like Yves Klein’s of documentation infamous likes itornot. whetherheorshe someone whowillalsobearchived, rather themodern human is gladly andabundantly, T butrather resistance. ation withhistory, archive archives inrelation to –notacollabor- ‘official’ etc.) very oftenrepresents acontra- musician, novelist, It isremarkable thatthearchive (thinker, oftheartist he modern humanisnotonlysomeonewhoarchives BrsGosi inh 99:6,original inGerman) 63, (Boris Groys inBianchi1999b: the paradoxical process of engaging in engaging the paradoxical processof , natoki tef commentsnot an artwork initself, m Connotations Baci19a 2 original inGerman) 52, (Bianchi 1999a: North by Northwest by North 1994–8) documenting , in which the in which n o possibility arises not only of possibility arisesnotonly Inthisspacethe diverse thingscanbejuxtaposed. main body of material on the on material main body of the formed which submittedbystatements artists, resumésand a flexible of 3-ringbinderportfolio the1995 ment of w o candirectlysubmittheir means whereby artists 1990+ourgoalistosetup the SwissArt Archive of festival! for we theperformance sighinlonging Ah, who originally one thehistorianwas according totheGreeks, that, perspective on things: perspective on distancingprovides acertain this semblance of themselves. toexaminethingsin historians–begin natural didhistorians–especially classicism of the age Onlywith historian’s jobwasto collectandre-tell. the upuntilthemid-17thcentury, Therefore, 130). hisown sight(Foucault 1970: perspective of Inhis necessary. y Both alikeand another. communication withone thethingsreveal theyalready that were in together, of nwrst no-on,o-iedtbs.This database. on-line wn works toanon-going, et distinct, in fact, no further commentaryis nofurther infact, et distinct, ould satisfy ourdesiretocontinueould satisfy thedevelop- The archive posesaspecialspaceinwhich nafrhrsaeo developing theDigital of stage In afurther seeing which hecanjudgeandchangetheworld. butalsoacquires ameasure by gain distanceinthisway, Notonlydoeshe allows himtocollecthimselfinternally. T other. creatures present themselves onebesidethe language, ofallenveloping stripped ofallcommentary, which, isanon-temporalthe locusofthishistory rectangle in gardens, collections, herbariums, things are juxtaposed: butunencumbered spacesinwhich texts orrecords, T ecletrclet isl sh olcs dal,this Ideally, he collectorcollectshimselfascollects. he documents of this new history arehe documentsofthisnewhistory nototherwords, UsSme nBaci19a 3 original inGerman) 53, (Urs Sommer inBianchi1999a: h aetig naohrwy Placed the samethingsinanotherway. re fThings Order of P erformance Index saw and recounted naming, P erformance Index Fual 90 131) (Foucault 1970: ,F p oucault tellsus b from the ut especially publication, website 1995–2001. At the same time, however, we For further information, see http://www.perforum.ch, Stoian Cassens intend to raise questions about our own archiving an ongoing (per)forum for discussions and critical structure, including a rethink of the digital reviews of festivals and publications and a calendar program masks, terminology and especially the of live-art events. At this stage, Performance Index/Basel comprises Linda Cassens Stoian, sorting function. Alongside this process we aim to Sabine Gebhardt-Fink and Heinrich Lüber. produce another festival in order to put the two modes of archiving performance next to each other, to see their underlying strategies in relation to each Picture credits for pp.130–3 other. Eventually, an archive of performance art aPascale Grau and Andrea Saemann, ‘textile Hilfestellung’ [textile aid station] Jäger und Sammler, Zurich, 1997. Photo: Thomas Ehrat archives could also be interesting . . . maybe. bFranz Gratwohl and Johannes Deimling ‘Das Gesicht Verlieren’ [Losing Face], 2000, Stadelhofer Zürich, ICA London cASS Abschuss, ‘Ich denke also gehe ich’ [I’m thinking, i.e. I’m leaving], Jäger & Sammler, Zurich, 1997 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT d airline, ‘Cocoon’, Eidgenössicher Wettberwerb für Freie Kunst, 2001 The Digital Archive of Swiss Performance Art 1990+ is eIrene Maag [no title], Jahresausstellung der Kunstklassen, HGK Basel, 1998 fPascale Grau, ‘Ei Sprung’ [direct translation, Egg Leap; meaning ‘ovulation’] financed by the Seedamm-Kulturzentrum, Stiftung Performancetage 1997, Seedamm-Kulturzentrum Pfäffikon/SZ, 1997 Charles und Agnes Vögele in Pfäffikon/SZ, Switzerland, gFranz Gratwohl and Johannes Deimling, ‘back to the roots’, Rote Fabrik, Zürich, 2000 hGABI, ‘hawaiianische Begrüssung’ [Hawaiian Greeting], view assistance, Boswil, 2000 and realized through a contract with perforum,a special iArt Clay, ‘Gespannte Gefährten’ [Eager Companions], 1997. Photo: Art Clay division for performance art research and exhibition jGerhard Johann Lischka, ‘Körpersprache: Sprachekörper’ [Body Language: Language Body] 1999, 7. Performance-Konferenz, Kunsthaus Glarus. Photo: copyright © Lorenzo Pusterla within the Seedamm-Kulturzentrum. perforum kChen Tan, ‘Haircut’, Kaskadenkondensator Basel, 2001 comprises the former ASA Schwarze Laden (Black Kit) lHeinrich Lüber. Eidgenössicher Wettberwerb für Freie Kunst, Basel, 2000. Photo: Johann Neuhaus performance archive donated to the centre by Boris mMonika Günther & Ruedi Schill, ‘Gründeln’, Performance Index Festival, Warteck Basel, Nieslony, as well as continuing to collect other 1995 nAllan Kaprow, Workshop, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, 1996. Photo: Linda Cassens Stoian documents, especially those related to Swiss performance oChantal Michel, ‘Aus nahen und fernen Gärten’ [From Near and Far Away Gardens], White art, but also international books and publications. Night, Kunstmuseum Bern, 1999 Schwarze Lade includes documentation of more than pCPX/Lukas Bardill, ‘Gastfreundschaft’ [Hospitality], Projekt Herz Bern, 1994 1200 artists with about 300 dossiers; more than 200 documentation videos of performance events in Europe, Asia and North and Middle America plus numerous slides, records, audiotapes, etc.; more than 500 journals, catalogues, brochures, and so on, about the practice and theory of performance art. perforum regularly produces a performance festival and other events and exhibitions. The archive is open to the public. Swiss artists and theorists are invited to support the further development of the archive by submitting documentation of artistic or theoretical works.

REFERENCES Allsopp, Ric (1998) ‘The Archive as Event: The Black Kit/Schwarze Lade’, Performance Research 3(2): 124–5. Bianchi, Paolo (1999a) ‘Was ist ein Archiv?’, Kunstforum 146 (July–August): 51–4. —— (1999b) ‘Das Archiv as Weltgarten’, Kunstforum 146 (July–August): 55–64. Foucault, Michel (1970) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences.London/New York: Tavistock Publications. —— (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge,London/ New York: Routledge. International Council on Archives. http://www.ica.org/Performance-Art-Context: http: //www.asa.de/research/kontext/kontextframe.htm

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