syllabus

Week 1: Introduction

Each participant introduces one self, shares information about personal background, education, a portfolio if available. The discussion opens on the subject: what is performance art? Examples are shared and discussed in the form of photography, video and writing. Discussion on documentation in performance art opens here: What remains for the future? Re-performance as a phenomenon will be discussed. Examples will be consulted. ASSIGNMENT: Video (up to 10 mins long) of a live performance as a meditation on one object that triggers strong memory (it can be anything, a sweater, a toy, and more abstract like smell). 

Week 2: History: Performance Art in the 20th Century

The two major cultural and artistic movements, Futurism and Dada, are analyzed with specific focus on performance art. We will look into the performances of Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Jospeh Buys, Yukio Mishima as well as the works of female performance artists emerging in the late 1960’s: Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Yayoi Kusama, Laurie Anderson, Joan Jonas etc. Discussion on gender in performance art opens here. ASSIGNMENT: Video (up to 10 mins long) of a live performance as a meditation on one of the historic movements, artists or performances we discussed. 

Week 3: The Body in Performance Art and the Realm of Contemporary Art 

Age, gender, race and body politics will be covered through numerous examples of artists like Hannah Wilke, Eva & Adele, Juliana Huxtable, Vaginal Davis and others. Video and photography documentation will be consulted. Ethics and aesthetics of the body, age, race and gender in performance art will be discussed. We will cover contemporary art world today: galleries, fairs, biennials, exhibitions and the role and place of performance art in it as well as contemporary performance art out of the mainstream as well as political art sometimes taken to the extreme as in the case of Voina and Pussy Riot.Themes of the individual performances will be defined for the final performances by the participants to take place live in front of the camera on WEEK 4. ASSIGNMENT: Video (up to 10 mins long) of a live performance as a meditation on a specific topic of interest (personal, emotional, social, historic etc). 

Week 4:

LIVE PERFORMANCES BY THE PARTICIPANTS (in streaming) with follow up discussion.