documentation and performance and viva! art action

the pressure to document performance is real. while waiting in line to see the julianna snapper performance a woman was talking with one of the organizers about having the work of a particular artist documented, video taped to be specific.

however…as a performance artist and as an audience member, i have a great deal of ambivalence about this need to document « all. » i don’t know if you have ever witnessed a performance and wondered if maybe you had accidently got the date wrong and shown up for the film shoot. more cameras and camera operators than audience members.

so… in this respect i am thankful that viva! art action is not obsessed with documentation for the sake of documentation.

however…one day (violins please)… i hope to attend a performance where we, the audience members are told our sensations, perceptions and memories of the event will stand as the only form of documentation. we, the actual physical bodies who shared in this space time will carry the only trace of the performance within ourselves.

antonio juarez…or the ninja performance photographer

performance disappears in the making. therefore if a performance artist wants to have a document for…lets say for funding purposes, or for artist talk purposes, or for promotional purposes, the photo is often the document of choice. for one thing the photo shows us in a language we understand what happened. for another thing the quantity of information held in a photo is…well, worth a thousand words.

however, often the photographer interferes unintentionally with the performance itself. a flash goes off disturbing the quality of calm the artist has been working towards creating, or the click, click of the camera shutter destroys the silence the artist needs, or even the body of the photographer comes into the sphere of the performance domain itself.

so who ya gonna call? antonio juarez.

birte endrejat…instructions for a setting

where: skol gallery 372 ste-catherine

what: performance document

there is something very lovely at skol that is extremely time sensitive that you have to go to the gallery in person to see.

every day birte endrejat creates a performance document that is shown in the gallery. the next day this first document is removed from circulation and that day’s document is presented. if you miss going to the gallery one day you will miss that day’s document.

and it is worth going to the gallery to see this work. a site in montreal is the setting for a set of performance instructions that one person performs. for example: the instructions for marché jean-talon (the first setting which is no longer available to be viewed) include a set of 33 instructions. here is an example of some of the instructions:

1. kneel down and correct the fit of your right shoe.

5. limp along next to a parked truck. stop your movement and touch your left knee with your left hand. then carry on limping.

16. hang on a column in a crooked position.

30. yawn into your left fist.

the document, folded like a city map, is also available for purchase (for the great price of $9.95)…in a limited edition of 10. but these too are only made available for purchase on the day of their presentation. if not sold they are taken out of circulation.

the document, like the performance, disappears.

birte endrejat: http://www.birteendrejat.com