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    HOFMANN, Jens 2005 On Performance (And Other Complications)

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    HOFMANN, Jens 2005 On Performance (And Other Complications)

    Uploaded by

    Luisa Frazão
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    HOFMANN, Jens 2005 On Performance (and other complications)

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    HOFMANN, Jens 2005 On Performance (And Other Complications)

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    Luisa Frazão

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    cnvecine assische Frikasseedekspitation des Logekommissars auf dor Melasseplatte Jee Bock, 2002 ENTRANCE ON PERFORMANCE (AND OTHER COMPLICATIONS) "The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinet, as possible! ‘Alan Kaprow ‘The word ‘performance’ seems to be on everybody's lips these days. It is used in a wide variety of fields and areas of the contemporary world, from the realms of ‘economy business, technology, science and medicine to art, popular culture, sports, politics and academi Ac the same time, even though everyone is using it, it seems dificult co sete on a lear and precise definition forthe term. Iis exactly this cieumstance—the way in which petformance resists clasiication ~that makes it such an interesting field in the ats, ‘The principal idea of this book isto challenge ‘ordinary ways of looking at art and common forms of categorizing it By taking the word ‘perform’ as contemporary alteration of what we have come to know historically as ‘performance’, the book seeks to tackle the complications of categorization, This book will ue Pel they yes Hefovcws / Jw pow lows, Thos 6 Hulten show how itis possible co group artists and works of Att in creative, op tive ways, which ‘ight reflect che connections and links Between the ‘works in an artistically more appropriate way chan a classic historical overview. ] 5 Performance is dead! Long live performance! This eclaration reflects the paradoxical situation in which we find ourselves when we consider a contemporary understanding of performance within the sphere of visual at, Most dictionaries offer a fairly wide definition for performance. Metriam-Webster’s Dictionary, for ‘example, defines it simply as ‘the execution of an’ ‘ction, the accomplishment ofa task of the manner in ‘Which something functions and operates”, Obviously, ENTRANCE 1 y los> this can mean many differen things. Inthe world of Dasinss, for instance, ‘performance’ is used vo describe the so-called productivity of an employee, the way a particular stock is developing on the marker, or the degree of efficiency with which a company is producing its goods. In sports, we use the term to speak about the level of suecess an athlete achieves during a competition, and in technology we use it to address the wiry of technical device. In polities, we mean the actions of 2 particular politician, ora specific party or simply the ctfecciveness of a certain political idea, We also use the term ro discuss how wel or poorly & piece of antique furniture, an item of jewelry or 2 painting fares during an auction. Within the sphere of the arcs we might address an opera singe’ ability ro sing by talking about his or her performance. We can also use the term to discuss the actual oceurteace itself, the opera being a temporary event staged for an audience, a public and provisional form of artistic action. These are only a ‘handful of examples that come to mind, out of 2 tangled web of possible ways of deploying the term. ‘The more we read and hear abouc performance, the ‘more confusing it seems to become. Suddenly activities as diverse as cooking or joke-eling seem to qualify as performance, as do TY talk shows o hot-dog-eating contess. Whatis this all about? Society as pesformance? “The world asa stage? ‘The idea of performance has been seriously 2e- ‘examined during the past decede through the so-called “performative turn’ described in numerous theorecical discourses applied to visual art, as well as to theatre and dance, Ia particular, academic fields such as philosophy, sociology linguistics and anthropology hhave revisived performance as a means of examining ‘core issues of social science shifting thei focus from structuralist methods to the study.of processes. ‘Wienessing a bot-dog-cating contest suddenly became 2 form of anthropological experience, in which a social structure was created chat would tell us something about the process of civilization. Sinilarly, cooking came to be seen a a performative rial involving ‘central elements in the creation of our society. (Culture ~in particular the connection between ritual practice, staged situations and the overall process of Civilization ~is now viewed as performance. Inhis book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life published in 1959, US-based sociologis Exving Goffman speaks of the process of socialization ~ the process of establishing a socal identity based on everyday acts and ‘ays of social interaction shaped through the contact we have with our daily environment ~as 2 form of performance. Heemploys erms that are mainly related to the realm of theatre (stage, audience’, ‘props’ et.) ‘with the sim of articulating the concepe of a theatre of life on the stage of which we all perform our roles. ‘Around the time that Goffman was publishing his ‘most inucoral text, the Betsh philosopher John L, ‘Austin began to develop bis now-famous 'speech-act theory’ twas during ara talk show in 1956 that ‘Austin fest used the term ‘performative. He was intially describing a form of speech, the so-called “performative utterance, in which the issuing of performative is also the performance of an action. ‘We therefore talk about performaties as words that do something rather than describe something, Familiar Renate eelon "a ‘Satan? Py Ais Swietemean Tua Aet Jatepele seen Ss eoiceyetece oh ER a EL 7 ag ee get ge) Remote Production Netach Se Haghighan, 2002 ENTRANGE 10 A ‘examples are he utterance‘ do’ in the context of marriage ceremony, ad the biblical line ‘Ler there be light: and there was light’. Austin’s book How To Do “Things sith Words (1959) became a classic inthe fields of linguistics and the philosophy of language, and ie had a tremendous influence on social science in the following decades. ‘hile Astin connec performatvty and language, Gotan, who focuses om the constroction of idenisy asa performative process, paved the way for che US- bse fins theorist Judith Butler, whois probly the most infuenial writer to have connected iden, performativty and gender. Influenced by Jeques Dertda’s ides of ctatonal procests as ideniy- constructing modes, Butler applied che term ‘performative’ in her most influential book, Gender ‘Trouble (1990), to her theory of ‘doing’ gender when the speaks of it as the identity-constituting process of ‘gendering based on the repetition of acts rather than natural or inevitable absolutes. Her argument chat ‘gender is nothing but a form of ‘relation among socially constituted subjects in specifiable contexts’, sather than & fixed attribute in a person, triggered widespread interest inthe nosion of performance and ite relationship to cultural st Examining the connection beeween performatvity and the discipline of anthropology brings us loser to the sphere of art, particularly when we look at the work of Richard Schechner, He holds a signifieant and unuswal postion in the discussion of performance, since he has been one ofthe few who have been able to bridge the ‘gap between the spheres of theory and artistic practice. a erreance ‘Schechner is a highly regarded academic, who founded New York Universi’ distingished performance seule department, but lg worked ax an infuenial theatre maker dating the 1960s and70s wth his legendary Pet essentially revolves aound the connection “between theatre and anthropology’, words e used that became the tide of one of is mos ine books, c- tuthored with anthropologist Vicor Tarn. Schechner is best known for what he called 1 “Theatre theatre that abandoned the separation berween th audience andthe pecormecs na promoted the idea of audience participation ashe had observed itn various cultural performative practices sch as ‘those found in certain religious rituals. Turner, on the ater hand, basing his work on Goffman’ idea that ‘the world is a stage, emphasized the concept of what called ‘social ram’, which would be made up of ations that stand out rom replat ‘Group. Schechner's practice everyday life and follow particular patterns. Looking atthe above, we see that the terms ‘performance’ and, especially, ‘performative’ have ‘been widely used to examine culture at large. When focusing particularly on the realm of art we se that the term ‘performative’ is being used ina less and less specific sense. Iris often used simply to describe, ‘dently or quantify a certain work of art as having a relation to performance or performance-like auteibutes.Alook at the large variety of art works that are associated with these terms quickly affirms that performance is anything but sprecitly formed

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