If, walking along the street, you saw an unusual action - do not rush to conclusions. Perhaps you have witnessed a performance, which means you have touched contemporary art.
To the definition of a concept
To understand what performance is, you should turn to authoritative sources. According to the dictionary of pictorial terms, performance (from the English performance - "performance", "performance", "game", "performance") is a short performance performed by one or more participants in front of the public in an art gallery, museum or outdoors.
This form of modern art originated in the late 1960s, incorporating elements of theater, dance, music, poetry. But for all its eclecticism, the performance has a number of features that make it a completely independent phenomenon of today's cultural life.
Distinctive features of performance as an art form
Performance is a well-planned action. It assumes the existence of a specific scenario in which everything can be thought out, including the slightest movement. The action becomes like a game, the rules of which are determined by the artist himself.
Of particular importance in action is given to the artist. The author of the performance tries on the role of a certain character and selects a specific behavioral model that helps to express the idea of the performance.
It is assumed that the viewer is not involved in the process. An outsider does not become part of the artistic action, but remains an observer.
Performance protests against traditional artistic principles, does not require the viewer to perceive from the standpoint of familiar art. The action often has an ironic, parody beginning, aimed at shocking. This expresses the radical aesthetic position of the artist.
Famous performance artists and their work
One of the most famous performance artists of our time is the Yugoslav artist Marina Abramovich. She began her career in the late 1960s. The first experiments with sound and space belong to this period. However, real work was brought to her by collaboration with the Dutch performance artist and photographer Uwe Leysipen, better known under the pseudonym Ulai.
A vivid example of the joint work of Abramovich and Ulai is the performance "Relations in Time". The artists, with their backs to each other, wove their hair and were in this position for 16 hours. All this time there was no one in the gallery hall except its employees. At the beginning of the 17th hour, when Marina and Ulai were already pretty tired, spectators were invited to the hall. The artists managed to hold out for another hour, after which the performance was completed.
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