REVISTA DE HISTÓRIA /06 DA ARTE PORTUGUESE PERFORMANCE ART JOURNAL DIRECTORS (IHA/FCSH/UNL) 3 Raquel Henriques da Silva Joana Cunha Leal Pedro Flor EDITORIAL Cláudia Madeira | Fernando Matos Oliveira | Hélia Marçal JOURNAL COORDINATION Ana Paula Louro (IHA/FCSH/NOVA) PUBLISHER Instituto de História da Arte 6 EDITORS Cláudia Madeira Hélia Marçal IN PERFORMANCE Fernando Matos Oliveira ANTÓNIO OLAIO ASSISTANT EDITOR Isabel Costa AUTHORS Filomena Serra | Sónia Pina | Isabel Nogueira 10 Bruno Marques | Alexandra do Carmo | Isabel Costa Mariana Brandão | Ana Bigotte Vieira António Contador | Rui Mourão | Cláudia Madeira DOSSIER Daniela Salazar | Hélia Marçal | António Olaio REVIEWERS (in alphabetical order) Ana Carvalho Ana Mira Bernardo Pinto de Almeida 140 Catarina Rosendo Cristina Azevedo Tavares Daniel Tércio REVIEWS Eduarda Neves Eugénia Vasques Fátima Lambert Francesca Clare Rayner Laura Castro Liliana Coutinho 142 Margarida Brito Alves Maria João Brilhante Paula Caspão NEWS Paulo Reis Raquel Henriques da Silva Ricardo Campos Ricardo Seiça Salgado Rui Torres SOUND PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION 143 Guilherme Marques VIDEO PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION PERFORMATIVE TALKS João Diniz REVISION Maisie Fitzpatrick DESIGN José Domingues (Undo) 144 Cover VIRTUAL SHOW OF SELECTED Música Negativa (score), 1965, E. M. de Melo e Castro. PERFORMANCE ARTWORKS Courtesy of the artist EDITORIAL he firstInternational Symposium on Portuguese The growing interest on Portuguese Performance Art has CLÁUDIA MADEIRA Assistant Professor at Communication Performance Art has held in Lisbon, in July 2016, been a catalyser of the historicization of this artistic genre, Sciences Department, joining artists and academics, as well as members which first appeared in Portugal in the middle of Estado Novo, Institute of Art History, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tof the general public(s), in a transdisciplinary a period of dictatorship, characterized by political persecution, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa discussion about the presences and absences of this artistic physical and psychological oppression and censorship. FERNANDO MATOS OLIVEIRA Assistant Professor / Centre for 20th Century genre in the Portuguese panorama. The organization of this Although performance art as a medium has re-emerged in Interdisciplinary Studies / Universidade de symposium was lead by the Faculty of Social and Human the Portuguese artistic scene during the 1990s, academic Coimbra. Sciences, from NOVA University of Lisbon, in close partnership studies on Art History, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Museum HÉLIA MARÇAL Department of Conservation and not only with institutions from the same University - Instituto de Studies, or even Conservation, only recently started to be Restoration, Faculty of Science and História de Arte, IFILNOVA, and the Department of Conservation developed and disseminated. We consider, however, that Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Institute of Art History, Faculty of and Restoration (Faculty of Science and Technology), but the role Portuguese Performance Art history (or, somehow, Social Sciences and Humanities, also with external entities, such as the Centro de Estudos stories) exceeds the traditional aims of historicization or Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Interdisciplinares do Século XX, from Coimbra University, and even the possibilities for assembling a (selected) archive. It is the Berardo Collection Museum, which kindly accepted the possible that the development of this history, as well as the challenge to host the event. This issue of Revista de História da discussion about performance artworks in additional areas of Arte — Série W appears as a testimony of the exchanges that social and human sciences, might operate as a starting point to occurred during the symposium, offering expanded versions examining other essential issues from various (inter)disciplinary of a selection of papers, first presented in that context, and fields. Artworks created until the 1980s, for example, have a that since underwent a double-blind peer-reviewing process. historical importance that cannot be disregarded. At the same The aim of this issue is, therefore, to provide a perspective time, studying these works from other perspectives might on Portuguese Performance Art current state of research. We bring light to some issues such as the social performativity also hope that this publication can contribute to the creation of being Portuguese, for example; or critical questions about and maintenance of a national and international network of the dictatorship, the Colonial War, the revolution, the return researchers and artists whose line of work is related with of Portuguese people from the former colonies, or even, the Portuguese Performance Art, setting the basis for the urgent processes of engagement from the post-memory generation. constitution of an archive of Performance Art in Portugal that Indeed, perspectives might be drawn not only from the absence can aggregate the scattered research about this genre. of Portuguese Performance Art history from that period, but Research about this theme was very scarce until recent also, from processes of historicization that take shape in other years. artistic manifestations, either being re-enactments of past events and artworks and different ways of seeing the artworks 4 RHA 06 EDITORIAL – Música Negativa (score), – 1965, E. M. de Melo e Castro. – Courtesy of the artist that were originated until the 1980s. Studying works created after the 1980s (with a prevalence from the 1990s until the present time), on the other hand, provides a window to the soul of artists that choose this medium, as they are often present in a wide variety of media. Intermediality, issues of representation and performance art ontology, or even new forms of using this genre in digital media, for example, are among the issues that are continuously challenged at this time. Finally, it is of utmost importance to mention the newly found relevance of these discussions within the field of Museums Studies. As art institutions are starting to incorporate performance art in their collections (with TATE Galleries, in London, for example, taking the lead), it is expected that national collections undertake the same path. Studying, documenting, and mapping Portuguese performance art, could, in this sense, be the step to initiate this process in Portugal, ultimately leading to the active preservation of historical and contemporary Portuguese performance artworks for future generations. It was with a clear consciousness of the unstable boundaries of this genre, which define both its theory and multiple practices, as well as of the need of studying that instability through a transdisciplinary lens, that we aimed at creating a unique space of debate between people with different backgrounds and perspectives on performance and performativity. From artists to curators, from cultural programmers to conservators, from philosophers to sociologists, from historians to anthropologists, the Symposium intended to confront interdisciplinary ideas, generations and experiences. This publication echoes that intent by focusing on collecting perspectives outside traditional disciplinary borders. It is thus structured along three general themes: Performance stories, dedicated to testimonies from Portuguese performance art actors, or to historical perspectives about performance 5 RHA 06 EDITORIAL – – – art events; Performance spaces, where the clash between digital timeline created around the archive from ACARTE (from performance art and art institutions is reflected upon; and 1984 to 1989), which considers that such place of performance, Performance temporalities, which is focused on the ideas as a commons tool, promotes Madalena Perdigão’s idea of of cyclicity, and present and future, as well as, in the notion “curatorship of absence”. António Contador explores the political of performance art as a changeable medium and concept. repercussions of the performative gesture of the “Senhor do Besides the Revista’s dossier, in this Special Issue a series of Adeus”, who, for years, waved to car drivers in the anonymous Performative talks, featuring dialogs between key-actors from traffic contemporary urban landscape of Lisbon. Rui Mourão, the Portuguese performance art scene, are also presented lastly, discusses the notion of artivism and the institutional place along with some fragments of the documental exhibition of artivist performance works. The last section of this dossier (from the artist Manoel Barbosa’s archive) and artistic show regards Performance temporalities. The term “temporalities” is that happened concomitantly to the Symposium, also at the used here in a broad sense, as this section’s contributions reflect Berardo Collection Museum. on time and performance art in various ways, which, in some The dossier opens with an essay by artist and theorist way, are transversal to the issues raised in preceding chapters. António Olaio, about being in and as performance. In Cláudia Madeira reflects upon two cycles of Portuguese Performance Stories, Filomena Serra presents the history of performance art (1960s-1980s, 1990s-nowadays), characterizing the happening “To beat or not to beat” (Porto, 1967), created its history as performative and speculative due to its necessarily by the artist Ângelo de Sousa as a subversive gesture against fragmentary nature and reliance on oral testimonies. Daniela the dictatorial regime. Sónia Pina explores some imprints from Salazar