Book Spectators Journey

Spectators Journey
Ida Brottmann Hansen
Gerrit Rietveld Academie

Fine Arts
2018
The Heritage
of the
Second Wave
Feminists.
On the Immigration of Images
from
Documented Live Art
3
Introduction 4
I will attempt to map out the visual and contextual heritage of

the feminist art movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s and the
immigration of the visual material as a historical consequence of
time based art. My thesis will discuss two general questions:
What is the heritage of the feminist art movement in regards
to the body in Live Art? How do events where we experience a
documentation of an action influence our understanding of the
work. Starting with the activist possibilities of Live Art and its way
of communicating directly with an audience, I am proposing that
with the feminists of the 60’s came an art movement that attempts
to not only influence the art world, but who strives to influence
society. The arguments are found in the history of Live Art and
its relationship to the public space.
Claire Bishop writes about the economy of the spectator and the
evolution of social Art in Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the
Politics of Spectatorship.1 The theory is concerned with the rela-
tionship between artist and spectator and how this relationship
evolves. I am interested to know how this relationship evolves
with time, in particular in relation to Live Art that is temporary
and not visible at all time. I will more specifically be looking at
the relationship between the action and the spectator in the Fu-
turists actions, the feminist performance art of the 1960’s to 1970’s
and the Russian art activism of the 21st century. Although the
themes and purposes of these three eras are different, I believe
that there is something inherently similar in their way of activat-
ing the audience and space.
With the feminists of the sixties, the naked body became a gener-
al symbol of freedom and not just an aesthetic attribute. To make
this argument I will compare the use of the naked body from
ancient Greece to the 1960’s, and from 1960’s to present day. When
1 Claire Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectator-
ship (London, New York: Verso, 2012)
5 Introduction
dealing with the politics of bodies several problems arise; what

happens when the artist are using hired performers, does the
relationship between artist and spectator then change? Will it be
possible for the action to be independent from the artist?
The documentation of a Live Artwork holds the key to its future

life. The implementation of documentation is specific to the time
it is made, can therefore tell us about the political and social envi-
ronment of its origin. I will examine documentation as an artistic
practice in its own right, and how the documentation manifested
itself. I will specifically be looking at the issues with document-
ing Live Art with a political agenda and how the meaning of the
documentation has and will change in time. The passing of time
presents a clear obstacle as the original medium of Live Art can
almost never be conserved, only when we are meant to view the
work through the medium of photography, film, text or sound can
we without much difficulty access the work after the action has
been done.
The second audience is the audience that view the Artwork in

other forms then the original. Their relationship to Live Art is
based on photography, video, text and stories. I am questioning
if an audience has to be present for a time based Artwork to be
considered as Live Art and weather it is possible for a Live Art-
work to exist when not on display. In Philip Auslander’s essay The
performativity of performance documentation,2 Auslander discuss to
what extent our understanding of an image depicting a perform-
ative act, relates to the concept of the action itself, proposing that
the concept of the action is the core of the work. For this to be
accurate, the documenting image has to hold the concept of the
action. The images in discussion can be divided in two categories:
actions originally presented as a photography and photography
documenting an action. For both categories we have to take into
2 Philip Auslander, ”The performativity of performance documentation”, PAJ: A

Journal of Performance and Art, 28: 2006
Introduction 6
account the impact an image can have to the understanding of an

event when using images as an instrument of power over bodies
and minds. For example is it interesting how representation of
violence sells so well, as discussed by Marie-José Mondzain in
Can Images Kill? 3
Lastly I am questioning the impact of the documentation of an

artistic activist activity. If this can only be viewed as a historical
reference, or if documentation can have an activist outcome and
live independent from the action. The tension between exhibition
and an Activist Art makes it difficult to define as either art or ac-
tivism. The artistic practice might work as a frame for the activist
action; in that case an exhibition will not be the ideal place to
visually communicate the project. The question is then where the
ideal place to communicate the practice is. Furthermore, can a
project be categorized as artistic if it doesn’t fit in to the frame of
art?
3 Marie-José Mondzain ,“Can Images Kill”, Critical Inquiry, trans. by Sally Shifto,
Vol 36, 1:2009
INTRODUCTION 3
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH LIVE ART? 9
THE ACTIVIST NATURE OF LIVE ART 13

Public Spaces 15
The Naked Body 23
The Spectator as Part of Social Political
Structures in Live Art 37
FUTURE MANIFESTATIONS 51
When Performing Becomes Documentation 53
The Weight of an Image 59
Documentation as Activism 62
CONCLUTIONC 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY 75
9
What is the Deal with Live Art 10
I will define all artworks that consist of the four elements:

time, space, the performer’s body, and a relationship between
audience and performer, as Live Art.
Some artists take matters into their own hands and make new
definitions of their work: Tino Sehgal define his works as
Situations, where Erwin Wurm describes his works as One Min-
ute Sculptures and Allan Kaprow used happenings to describe his
works. While all these definitions do help us to understand the
intention of the works as well as giving us a tool to analyze the
work, they all share the same challenges when documenting, the
most obvious being Live Art’s nature of an event with a specific
duration. I will for simplicity refer to all performance art, body
art, happenings and situations as Live Art. In this thesis all art
works involving performers that have been in the contemporary
art scene, will go under this category.
11 What is the deal with Live Art
I have a black and white photo from Yves Klein’s Anthropometrie

performance series, hanging on my wall. When I first became ac-
quainted with the work I learned that it was a pun on the phrase
“a body of work”, where Yves Klein, who was considered a painter
at the time, employed female models as “living paintbrushes” for
the paintings while a orchestra was playing Monotone Symphony,
a solitary note played for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of
silence. In the black and white picture that I have, Klein is bend-
ing forwards holding a female models wrist, while dragging her
paint-covered body on a white surface. I never saw this as any-
thing but funny play on words and a clever way of working with
the notion of painting and the history of using female models in
art, but when a friend saw the picture she saw it as a white male
dominating the female body, had the picture been of a different
moment of the performance where Klein was not present, she
may have perceived the work differently. This made me question
if there is something inherently political about the naked female
or if the feminist art movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s are the
reason that a naked female body will have political connotations.
I am interested in knowing to what extent our understanding

of an historical depiction of a Live Artwork, is influenced by the
events from the the present time. Furthermore if the spectators
experiences influence their understanding of an artwork then
other factors, such as the choice of documentation will influ-
encing the future of a Live Artwork too. Examining the impact
of documentation on the conceptual understanding of a Live
Artwork. By looking at the heritage of the 60’s feminist art move-
ment, I will attempt to find out if performance art should always
be seen in the context of its time, or if it can be put it in the con-
text of another time.
Documentary Photograph, Anthropometry, Yves Klein, 1960.
12
13
The Activist Nature of Live Art 14
With live art’s possibility of communicating directly with an

audience and its unpredictable nature, it is the perfect
medium for activist activities. I will start my research in the
1960’s where the nature of live art made it a perfect medium
for the feminist agenda. I will also propose that this was
the first time that artists actively tried to change the belief
of a general public and I will attempt to find out what the
heritage of feminist art is in performance art today. I would
make the statement that a body, and specifically a female
body, carries a specific political agenda in itself. That put-
ting a body on a pedestal will not just be read as a study of
human anatomy, but also rather contain a political message.
The question if this is because of Live Arts feminist heritage,
making the agenda of feminism in the sixties, a structural
part of what Live Art is today.
15 The Activist Nature of Live Art
Public Spaces
5 Lawrence Rainey, Christine Poggi, Laura Wittman, Futurism: An Anthololog (London, New Haven: Yale University Press,
According to RoseLee Goldberg Live art, as we know it today,
began with the Futurist Manifesto (La Futurism, printed in La
Figaro 1909) by the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti.4 The manifesto
was an attack on the established painting and literary academies;
although this was more propaganda than actual production this
became a trademark for young futurists in the coming years.
Under the umbrella of Futurism, painters would start to employ
4 RoseLee Goldberg, Live Art 1909 to the Present (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979) P. 9-14
the original ideas of speed and love of danger, and in 1910 came a
joint manifesto.5 The fact that painters, poets and sculptors were
working towards the same goal made them all equal; the paint-
ings were not just decorations on a stage, and the performances
were not just entertainment. The futurists made no separation
between art as poets, as painters or as performers. Live art is the
perfect medium for activism; it is daring and it reaches a lot of
people. Having it in a visual art context also means that you are
able to reach a different audience than had it been only an activist
action and not an artistic action.
The feminist art movement is as any other art movement a

product of what has been before. Where artists like Hannah Wil-
ke, Cindy Sherman, Valie Export, Carolee Shcneemann, Renate
Eisenneggar and Karin Mack were able to use the activist nature
of performance to provoke actual change.
Where the futurists demonstrated the established art institutions,

the 60’s feminists used performance art to protest against the
norms and stereotypes connected with the female body.
I would claim that the use of activism and propaganda in Live Art
did not start with futurists but can be traced back to the tragedies
2009)
of ancient Greece. Although Greek tragedies were not used as a

direct tool for demonstration and activism, they were an active

part of society. Although most tragedies focused on men and pro-
vided a poetic justification on the hierarchy of women, foreigners
and slaves, much point to the tragedies taking a more progressive
view than society in general. The creativity in Greek theater is to
turn myth into theater, making it an almost religious play. The
theater was a communal space where most of spectators had
some part of their life performed themselves. It was therefore a
part of their life and was seen as an accurate historical descrip-
tion. This made it a good tool to change social rules in the play.
We know from The Republic (Plato, ca. 380 BC) that Plato com-
6 Edith Hall, Greek Tragedy - Suffering under the Sun (Oxford: OUP Oxford 2010)
plains of the dangers of the theatrical impersonation of social

inferiors such as women and slaves and of feminine emotions, as
well as the poet Aeschylus complains that Euripides has made
tragedy democratic by allowing his women and slaves to talk as
well as the master of the house. I therefore share Edith Hall’s
optimistic argument that tragedy, despite its hierarchical world-
view, “does it’s thinking in a form which is vastly more politically
advanced than the society which produced”.6
The political tradition in avant-garde art has continued up to

contemporary art of the 21st century; especially body related art
seems to be rooted in a political agenda initiated by the femi-
nist art movement. The first ‘’wave’’ of feminism began in the
mid-nineteenth century with the women’s suffrage movement
and continued to the beginning of the 20th century when women
got the right to vote. Not much feminist art was produced in this
time, although several female artists rose to prominence, but the
ground was laid for feminist activism in the coming years. Frida
Kahlo is now seen as a feminist icon, due to her many years of
portraying her body in ways that woman were not seen at the
time, and the play with her gender. It wasn’t until the 60’s and 70’s
that the feminist art movement made a mark in art history, with
7 Steve Rose, “Carolee Schneemann: ‘I never thought I was shocking’”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/
its female performers working to free the female body of all its
conceptions.
In Valie Export’s Tap and Touch Cinema (1968), Export invited

onlookers to put their hands into a large, curtain-covered box in
front of her breasts and touch her naked body for up to 30 sec-
onds, hereby demonstrating the objectification and sexualization
artanddesign/2014/mar/10/carole-schneemann-naked-art-performance (accessed 10 March 2014)

of women in film by breaking sexist cinema down to its essence.
Export protested the restriction of the female body as did so
many other feminist artists at that time, amongst them Carolee
Schneemann when she performed Interior Scroll, which culmi-
nated in Schneemann standing naked on a table and removing a
long strip of paper from inside her vagina, from which she read
out an imaginary conversation with a dismissive male film-maker.
In her own words this was not something that she thought was
shocking but rather her contributing with something that she
saw was needed.7
Film still, Tap and Touch Cinema, Valie Export, 1968.
Documentary Photograph, Interior Scroll, Carolee Schneemann,1975.

Activism in Live Art is still evident today and can be seen as a
Journal, https://www.calvertjournal.com/opinion/show/3365/pyotr-pavlensky-protest-art-living-pain-sculpture, (assessed

8 Jonathan Brooks Platt, “The body politic: how Pyotr Pavlensky’s performance art is breaking the mould”, The Calvert
protest where the freedom of the body can be used as a symbol
for a general suppression. None has in my opinion been as strong
as from the contemporary Russian artists, Pussy Riot and Pyotr
Pavlensky. Who have both gotten a lot of attention for their activ-
ist actions and the prosecution that followed. Pussy Riot gained
global notoriety when five members of the group staged a per-
formance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the savior in 2012;
the actions were condemned as sacrilegious by the Orthodox
clergy and eventually stopped by church security officials. The
collective’s lyrical themes included feminism, LGBTQ rights, and
opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the group
considered to be a dictator. To Pussy Riot their art is a method
to interfere directly in the object of their protest. According to
Pavlensky it was the trail of Pussy Riot Trail that led him to un-
derstand the need for a more radical approach to art.8 Pavlensky
most famous action, Fixation, nailing his scrotum to Moscow’s
Red Square was a protest against the apathy, political indifference
and fatalism of contemporary Russian society. He was discharged
that evening, and released by the police without charge – only
for them to open a case of “hooliganism motivated by hatred of a
particular social, ethnic or religious group” a few days later. It is
the same article of the law that was used against Pussy Riot and
can carry a jail sentence of several years.
Clearly the Russian activist artists are a special case and their pro-
tests are very different from the protests of the 60’s and 70’s artists,
but many things can be compared. The fight for equality amongst
gender and sexuality and the protests against oppression can be
13 November 2014)
compared, but even more I would say that the methods are com-
parable. The actions often take place in the public where they
can not hide in the safe place of the art world, the places of the
activist action is often chosen as the subject of the protest.
Documentary Photograph, Fixation, Pyotr Pavlensky, 2013. Photo taken by a
person passing, published in numerous articles.
20
The activist nature of Live Art 22
Export’s Tap and Touch Cinema took place in a public space, as

did the actions of Pussy riot and Pavlensky. I would even go as
far as saying that Art activism only works in the public space
where it is not protected by the walls of Gallery or fine arts. If
Pavlensky would have nailed himself to the floor of a gallery or an
exhibition planned by a curator, the art critics might have been
outraged, but most likely the action would have never caught
political attention. If Pussy Riot had made their performance on
a stage where they were paid to be there, a trial would not have
come out of it. It works because that they enter the places that
they are objecting to. When an artist protests against the estab-
lished art world, the protest belongs in the space of fine arts. This
is also why the feeling of activism in Live Art is so strong, because
that we know that it can be used as a successful tool of protest or
activism if done in the right place.
23 The activist nature of Live Art
The Naked Body
The feminist art movement changed the perception of the body,

by using their own body as a symbol of freedom protesting the
restrictions and sexualization of the female body. With this move-
ment the naked body became a general symbol of freedom as an
inherent part of Live Art.
The interpretation of a Live Artwork is highly dependet on the

political atmosphere at the time of its exhibition. Should a Live
Artwork be shown twice with several years apart, chances are
that the interpretation of the artwork will change as the political
climate changes. A naked female body in art will in most cases
provoke some kind of political reaction, most likely because of
the history of feminist performance art. When we look at female
nudes before the feminist art movement, the desired result was
visual, rather then political. Pierre-August Renoir’s Nude on a
Couch, Titian’s Venus of Urbino and Juergen Teller’s Vivienne West-
wood nr 3 are three portraits of female nudes made by men, with
different intentions.
If we look at the naked body in art, I would argue that it chang-

es in the 1960’s. To use a naked body for art was nothing new in
1960, but the intention changed. Again I will compare the use of
the naked body in 60’s and 70’s performance art to that in ancient
Greece. Greek sculptors were particularly concerned with pro-
portion, poise and the idealized perfection of the human body,
which makes them relevant to the history of the naked body in
art.
Photography, Vivianne Westwood nr. 3, Juergen Teller, 2013 Oil on canvas, Pierre Ren
noir, Nude on a couch, 1915 Oil on canvas, Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1534
Kalos Kai Agathos9 is the concept of good and beauty, where the
inside (moral) and outside (body) was equally important, to be a
complete human you had to have both qualities. Kalos Kai Agathos
was generally used to describe a man who has the virtues of an
aristocrat or a leading citizen, including good looks, intelligence,
wealth and social status. Although public shame, had you not
been good citizen, was a known concept in the ancient Greek
society, the concept of sin and shame that we know today was
invented by Christianity. The idea of shame was in the ancient
Greek society connected to communal decision rather then a re-
lationship between the individual and a god. Shame and sin were
therefore not connected to the body, which allowed for beauty,
strength and youth to be celebrated as a godly figure.
Take a look at the statue Discopolus and Interior Scroll (Carolee

Schneeman, 1975). For both of these works I have only photogra-
phy’s and additional texts to get myself acquainted with. Myron’s
Discopolus (ca 560-450 BC) is a nude male figure of a disco thrower
captured in the exact moment where he is about to let go of his
discos. In this sculpture Myron captures a pattern of athletic
energy by giving a steady form to a moment of action, showing a
perfect example of rhythmos (harmony and balance). Although
the position is now considered somewhat unnatural and far from
the most practical way of throwing a discos, the statue does hold
a great deal of naturalism, showing a rather ‘normal’ action. We
don’t know how the model of Discopolus looked in real life, but
most probably he didn’t look quit as the sculpture. Interior Scroll
took place in East Hampton, New York, 1975, where Schneemann
ritualistically stood naked on a table, painted her body with mud
until she slowly extracted a paper scroll from her vagina while
reading from it. Schneemann has said herself that she thought of
the vagina as a sculptural and spiritual form;
9 M.C. Howatson, Plato: The Symposium (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

...an architectural referent, the sources of sacred

knowledge, ecstasy, birth passage, transformation… a
spiraled coil ringed with the shape of desire and
generative mysteries, attributes of both female and male
sexual power.10
She goes on saying “This source of interior knowledge would

be symbolized as the primary index unifying spirit and flesh in
Goddess worship.” The idea of Interior Scroll was to physicalize
the invisible, marginalized and suppressed history of the vulva,
as the source of orgasmic pleasure, of birth, of transformation, of
menstruation, of maternity, to show that it is not a dead, invisible
place.
10 Carolee Schneemann, More Than Meat Joy, (McPherson & Co Publishers, 1979)
p. 234-235
Bronze, Discobolus, Myron, ca. 460–450 BC . The original sculpture is lost. The image show
a Roman replica from 2nd century AD.
Documentary Photograph, Interior Scroll, Carolee Schneemann, 1975
The Activist Nature of Live Art

30
If we look at the figures in the images of Discobolus and Interior

Scroll, we see a resemblance in form. Both figures are viewed
slightly from a below position, bent knees with one arm stretched
to the back and the other arm placed in front of the stomach,
both are naked and both in motion (one a captured motion and
the other a physical motion). To compare a sculpture to a snap
photography of a performance might not make much sense, but
I want to focus on the two photographs as visuals with forms that
can be compared, and look at them in the state that they are most
often presented in Art history literature. Where Discobolus glorify
the male nude as a symbol of beauty, Interior Scroll is an empow-
ering of the female sexuality. Of course, the very essence of the
two images is very different, one the ideal and the other a protest.
There is also the very obvious difference of gender, where male
and female always have been pined as opposites. I would argue
that this is one crucial reason why politics is an inherit part of the
body, and especially the naked body. Because even though I am
comparing the two naked bodies, the fact that one is male and
the other female is a valid point to make. The nude male figure
is something very old that we as spectators have been trained
to view as a form, where the nude female body free of shame is
something new in comparison. I am mentioning this because it
plays a role in how the naked body was portrayed in art, and why
Schneemann and the other artists changed what a naked body in
art meant, by using their body as an active material if protests.
Allegory of the Painted Woman (2012-2015) by Alexis Blake, per-

formed in Rijksmuseum 2015, deals with the exact issue of the
historical representation of the female nude in paintings. If we in
art history had not already gone through a demonstration against
the restricted body, works like Allegory of the Painted Woman
would have been read very different. Everything is a reaction
of something that had already happened, and nothing would

look the way it does if it wasn’t for a prior outcome in evolution,
but the naked body as a tool of protest can for the most part be
traced back to the 60’s feminists to a point where the body doesn’t
have to be nude. The performers are dressed in gray, making a
direct reference to the stone and marble sculptures in the muse-
um. The sharp poses that the two performers make carries a clear
demonstrative effect, as they become images of female strength.
Myron, Discopolis Documentar
Allegory of the painted Woman, A
ry Photograph, Schneemann, Interior Scroll
Alexis Blake, 2015, Rijksmuseum
When looking at the documentation of Allegory of the painted

Woman (2015, Rijksmuseum), we can view the photos for their
form and esthetics and enjoy them as would we be looking at
the paintings referenced. The two women are in white tank top,
gray sweat pants and white sneakers giving the performers a
contemporary look. In the first photo the two female performers
are standing back-to-back, one leg slightly bended and one hand
on the chest. In the second picture the two performers are bend-
ing backwards, one leg lifted in a bended position and the other
stretched slightly above the floor, one arm stretched backwards.
Both bodies are in motion seemingly in balance at this specific
moment. The contemporary clothes, the title of the piece, and
the history it follows, makes this a work that is not just about the
formalities of a painting but a protest against the standardized
portraying of female beauty. This is what I would call the heritage
of feminist performance art.
Blake is not performing herself in this perticular presentation but

is working with musicians and dancers that are experts in their
tasks. When Allegory of the painted Woman took place in Rijksmu-
seum 2015, in consisted of two female dancers, and four musi-
cians. It is worth noticing that whereas the gender of the dancers
seems to have a certain importance, the gender of the musicians
does not.
Although the view of the body, in particular the female body, has
changed several times since ancient Greece we still value youth,
strength and beauty as a possession of high value. In Allegory of the
painted Woman Blake breaks down the physical movements of por-
trayed beauty and grace, as has often been the theme in paintings
of female nudes.
Alexis Blake, Allegory of the painted Woman.
11 Claire Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London, New York: Verso, 2012)
The spectator as part of social political structures in
Live Art.
In Artificial Hells Claire Bishop describes the history of artists

in an attempt to rethink the role of the artist and the work of art
in relationship to society in various forms of participatory art.
Bishop focuses on three moments that, according to her, carried
a significant importance: 1917 where the artistic production was
influenced by Bolshevik collectivism, 1968 where the artistic
production was focused on a critique of authority, oppression
and alienation and 1989 that marked the fall of socialism and
celebrated as the end of a repressive regime in the beginning of
the 1990’s.11 Bishop maps out the consequence in the art world of
a Western Europe gradually reducing the welfare state and the
introduction of free market and capitalism in Eastern Europe, as
an initial optimism that would turn into disillusionment when
faced with the reality of privatization, arguing that freedom from
the regime had been delivered as depending on the expanded
consumer freedom. The result of the contradictorily times of 1989
made the impact on the artistic production less straightforward,
resulting in exhibitions exploring a collaborative working process
and cultural heritage, rather than targeting specific communities.
Bishop introduces the term ‘project’ after 1989 as an attempt from
the western art world to replace art as a finished object with a
post-studio, research-based, social process that can extend over
time and take multiple forms. Although this could leave the
public feeling left out and unwelcome, as this had more to do
with the artists own experience than that of the audience, this
approach did open up to viewers from many levels of society.
The tendency of hiring outside expertise to take part in an

artwork is described by Claire Bishop in Delegated Performance:
Outsourcing Authenticity, where she talks about the act of hiring
P. 464
nonprofessionals or specialists to be performing on behalf of

the artist, following instructions given by him or her. This was a
big shift from the performances known from the late 1960 and
1970 where the performance was typically expressed through
the artist’s own body. By hiring performers, the artwork would
mirror the actual economical situation where companies in the
90’s started to outsource labor, to either achieve cheaper or more
skilled labor. The artists did not only comment on the political
and financial situation in their work, but the art world adapted
the situation of its time and used it as a tool or method. This
suggests that we can read about a specific tendency of the time
by looking at the artworks, it also differs from previous perfor-
mances that worked as a reaction rather then adapting certain
methods.
I will be looking at the specific part of Bishop’s text where she dis-
cusses artists that tend to hire people to perform their own socio-
economic category,12 on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, age,
disability or profession. In the beginning of the chapter I made
an assumption saying that because of the 60’s feminists, identity
politics have become a structural part of Live Art. I will start by
discussing the tendency of hiring non-professionals to perform
an aspect of their own identity, called live installations. Exam-
ples of this tendency is Annika Eriksson’s Copenhagen Postmen’s
Orchestra (1996) and British artist Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass (1997)
who both invited bands to perform recent pop music in their own
respective style, or Elmgreen & Dragset’s Try (1997), where they
hired, gay men to walk around in the gallery listening to head-
phones. Bishop emphasizes the fact that this work was primarily
developed in Europe and was a break with the more direct identi-
ty politics that were crucial in America.
As an example, Bishop analyses the Italian artist Maurizio
12 Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS, p. 490-492

Cattelan’s project, Southern Suppliers FC, from 1991.13 Cattelan

put together a football teal of African immigrants, who would
play local football matches, all of which they lost. On their shirts
were the fictional sponsors, RAUSS (German slang for ‘get out),
the name of the project Southern Suppliers FC were also a hint to
the debate at the time of hiring foreign football players to play
on Italian teams. Cattelan’s points out a sharp contrast in status
made between the high-status immigrants who came as star
soccer players and working class-immigrants. Bishop offers an
analyses of the visual outcome, the word Rauss combined with
photography of the all-black Italian football team that would
circulate in the media. As she says this seemed to have blurred
E.U. fear of being of being flooded by immigrants from outside
’fortress Europe’ - Interesting enough this a fear that have only
grown stronger in the 27 years that have passed. Bishop calls
Southern Suppliers FC;
..a social sculpture as cynical performance, inserted into

the real-time social system of a soccer league.
The critique at the time was that Cattelan was not straightfor-
ward in his political message.15 Even though the performance lime-
light was shared, it was highly directed by Cattelan, using a sport
as a popular point of reference rather than a democratic focus
of collaboration. It is, in fact, not uncommon for artists making
this kind of Live Installations to use the very structures they are
criticizing. The mere structure in this specific field is vulnerable
to critique, as the whole structure is made from one person (the
artist) directing a group of people of a certain socioeconomic
category (performer). Does the artist use a group of performers
usually seen as a minority, the artist will just be pointing at a ten-
dency by reproducing it, as was the case with Cattelan’s Southern
Suppliers FC.
13 Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS, p. 493-496

14 Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS, p. 221
15 Francesco Bonami, Maurizio Cattelan (London: Phaidon, 2003), p. 58
The same critique can be used on many of the works by Santiago

Sierra, who often displays low-paid workers in his installations.
Sierra work has shifted from hiring low-paid workers to produce
his installations to displays of the workers themselves, showing
the economical situation on which the installations depend. One
of his early works were 250cm Line Tattooed on 6 Paid People; six
unemployed young men from Old Havana were hired for 30USD
in exchange for being tattooed. He has been heavily criticized for
repeating the inequalities of capitalism and western culture in
the world, hereby contributing to a society of financial and social
inequality. Sierra insists on making the payment to the workers
part of the work’s description.
We can in the same way question the method of objectification of

your own body for a feminist cause. The language is often that of
objectification, showing the restriction by acting restricted. When
you objectify your own body, do you then play by the rules or
oppose them? Do you go by the tendencies or do you take
possession of your own body? What Schneemann did when
using her naked body in Interior Scroll was to contextualize
her body in a way that was not just sexual.
The group Girl Squat is fighting for their right to be as sexy

and undressed as they like, while using the classical rules of
beauty, and still be taken seriously in the current feminist
debate. The three girls Nikita Klæstrup, Ekaterina Krarup
Andersen and Louise Kjølsen are not considered artists but
thinkers in the debate of feminist activism. Girl Squat re-
cently broke of the group to focus on individual projects, but
have since 2016 been arguing that also feminine, naked wom-
en and with classical good looks should be taken seriously.
The project has resulted in numerous photographs (taken by Eka-

terina Krarup Andersen), lots of interviews, articles, a podcast,
and a book.16 Their approach has made them vulnerable to cri-
tique from both sides; the feminist saying that they are damaging
the feminist cause, and the other letting them know that they are
a object of their desire. Girl Squat has not promoted themselves
as an art project, but as a social media. However if we look at the
photographs, the way we view them are in the same way as if we
would view a Cindy Sherman (I am well aware that Sherman is
more critically acclaimed). Though the project Girl Squat is social,
the result is often visual. The word ‘project’ has in the past been
used for many different types of art; collective practice, self-organ-
ized activist groups, trans-disciplinary research, participatory and
socially engaged art, and experimental curator activity. Girl Squat
is first and foremost social, their main goal was not that of an art
piece but of activism attempting to change the minds of the view-
ers and debating their course. As a visual technique Andersen
draws inspiration from paintings and sculptures of female nudes,
the photos carries much resemblance to the visualization of the
triple goddess. In common Neopagan usage the three female
figures are frequently described as the Maiden, the Mother, and
the Crone, each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the
female life cycle and a phase of the Moon, and often rules one
16 Ekaterina Andersen, Louise Kjølsen, Nikita Klæstrup, Ludermanifestet (Copen-

hagen: Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2017)
of the realms of earth, underworld, and the heavens. The figure of

the Triple Goddess is used to aim critique at societies’ roles and
treatment of women and has often been used as symbol of live
and strength.
The group does (as have become normal in today visual language
of activism) use the internet as the public space framing the
action. The fact that the use of imagery has become an important
part of visual activism makes it possible to reach a larger audi-
ence and use the imagery depiction in art history as a focus point
of your references. What in many people’s eyes are pornographic,
are for Andersen a celebration to the female figure and strength
using the visuals that we connect with pop culture, superficial-
ity and fragility and insist that the issue is in the reader not the
subject, that beauty and strength go hand in hand. Andersen tests
our own vanity and how we look at images.
A. Photography from Ludermanifestet, Girl Squat, 2017
B. Symbol of The Triple Goddess

C. Oil on Canvas, Peter Paul Rubens, The Three Graces, 1630-1635.
Image A will for most peo- Image C is The Three Graces

ple resemble an underwear painted by Rubens between
commercial or something from 1630 and 1635. The Three Grac-
a mens magazine. The three es, who originates from Greek
women are posing in sensual mythology; Aglaia (Radiance),
ways usually to be seen when Euphrosine (Joy) and Thalia
seducing costumers. The colors (flowering), was believed to be
are light, calm and damp; all children from an affair of Zeus.
visuals usually ascribed to fe- They served Aphrodite, the
male aesthetics. The image has goddess of love, and it is said
clear resemblance to those of that they were never bored.
female pop singers except for The Three Graces was and is
a few things: Andersen (who is still the perfect image of fe-
also the photographer) is vis- male youth, beauty and hope.
ually pregnant and the image is Rubens painted the figures
made from an aesthetic pur- from a marble sculpture which
pose of the three girls and not is why the skin is so white and
the viewer. radiant. The Graces were at the
time seen as the ideal beauty
Image B shows the Triple and it is interesting to observe
Goddess symbol of the waxing, the shape and language of their
full and waning moon, repre- bodies, that are very different
senting the aspects of Maid- from the beauty standards of
en, Mother, and Crone. The today that Girl Squat works
concept of Triple Goddess exist with. When we compare the
in many religions, cultures and three images, you can see how
mythologies, the essence of a Girl Squat draws references
triple goddess is a goddess with from thousand of years of
three aspects, or in some cases female depiction.
it may even be represented by
three separate individuals who
are linked together and often
appear together.
Girl squat can only do what they do, because of the times they are
living in. They are exactly saying that the interpretation of the
object has to be changed not the object itself. They objectify their
own bodies and insist that this does not mean that their bodies
are for sale, they still belongs to them. We need to remember
that Girl Squat is a project that at no time is defined as an artistic
project, which, however, I would suggest that it actually is. Bishop
uses ‘project’ as an indicator of the artists renewed social aware-
ness in the 1990’s, and describes a successful project as something
that allows the worker to integrate him/herself into a new project
afterwards, as a generator of new projects. The flexibility that lies
in this art form and in particular within the labor of the artist
is according to Bishop a direct consequence of withdrawal of
manual skills, resulting in long-term projects that is closer to that
of a service than visual object. It is hard to determine what is an
artwork (project) and what is a social project, so we rely on the
argument: if the artist says so.
When showing this project-based art form in an old format (exhi-

bitions) there will be a conflict between these two models. Often,
for example, there is barely any object to look at, and the role of
the audience is severely limited. Bishop brings up the example
of ‘culture in Action’, as an experimental exhibition striving to
democratize the production and reception of art. However the
participation and spectatorship of art are mutually exclusive as
they expect very different things of the audience, showing how
project and exhibition are mutually exclusive. In a ‘project’ the
focus will often be on the spectator; in that case the spectator will
be the subject and in some cases even the object. If an exhibi-
tion is not the ideal place to visually communicate the project
then what is the correct place for it? There might be a difference
between the presentation of a project and a historical reference of
it (which I would claim is the case for most exhibitions of social
projects).
The desired effect on the spectator will not happen in a gallery

setting, because of the way we are trained to look.
Girl Squat has been very successful partly because of the frame
of the project and the visuals as a result of their activities. Pri-
marily using social media they use a public platform where the
visuals aren’t that much different then of so many others in the
same place. They then add other elements, like a certain text on
their t-shirt, a caption or a debate about sexual harassment. The
project is efficient when the agenda of the artist, the visuals and
the spectator clash. Why I would call Girl Squat an artistic project
with a socio political agenda, much like the feminist performance
art of the 70’s.
Photography, Nikita Klæstrup, Ekaterina Krarup Andersen and
d Louise Kjølse, Girl Squat, published in Ludermanifestet, 2017.
51
Future Manifestations 52
I would claim that the way we choose to document artwork

ends up defining the work after a certain amount of time
has passed, and therefore it has a big effect on the work’s
future life. Documentation is specific to its time and the way
is kept can therefore say something about the political and
social environment of its origin. In this chapter I will
examine documentation as an artistic practice in its own
right and study how the documentation manifests itself. I
will specifically be looking at the issues with documenting
live art with a political agenda and how the meaning of
the documentation has and will change in time. We can by
looking at art history get a pretty good idea of what
documentation was used at what time, and what has been
efficient.
53 Future Manifestations
When Performing becomes documentation, performing
16 Hans Belting, Art After Modernism, trans. by Caroline Saltzwedel, Mitch Cohen and Kenneth Northcott (Chicago:
without an audience.
When addressing Live Art in an art historical context we soon run

in to an issue of documentation. The notion of time offers a clear
obstacle as the original medium of Live Art can almost never be
conserved, only when we are meant to view the work through
the medium of photography, film, text or sound can we with out
much difficulty access the work after the action has been done (I
will discuss this phenomena more later).
The notion of time in Live Art is of great relevance to the form

and concept of the work. While the duration offers a clear struc-
ture, the historical time and political era of the work offers a
historical context that will be relevant to the understanding of
the work when looking at a bigger pattern. This is the reason why
a live work will live on in a historical context, a performance is
often specific to the body of artist creating it, which means that
when the artist is no longer there the piece can only exist through
documentation. In Art After Modernism, Hans Belting brings up
The University of Chicago Press, 2003), p. 85 - 95

the point that where paintings and sculptures seem to survive
through physical evidence of their existence live works seems to
be depending on theories which might be the problem of docu-
mentation. 16
The secondary audience is the audience that was not there phys-
ically for the live action but has seen documentation of the work.
For most people an artwork will be seen on a different medium
then the original. Paintings, sculptures and photography’s can be
viewed long after the artist is gone, but live works do (for the most
part) only exist as a time-based medium. Duo to the amount of
information available it is fair to assume that a big percentage of
the combined audience (both first and second), will be part of
17 The University of Chicago Press, 2003), p. 85 - 95 S.T, “The fine art of human interaction”, The Economist, https://www.
the second audience category. This raises a new question: does a
performance only exists when it is on display?
One artist that have taken performance documentation to the ex-

treme is Tino Seghal; in an interview in The Economist Seghal said
...visual documentation can never capture the live inter

active experience and it runs the risk of displacing the
real work with secondary representations of it. Photo
graphs are two-dimensional, I work in four dimensions.17
Even though Seghal’s does not permit photography he still has a

second audience. If the second audience is the audience becom-
ing acquainted with a work in its original state then the second
economist.com/blogs/prospero/2012/07/tino-sehgal (accessed 12 July 2012)
audience in this case is the people who have heard stories about
Seghal’s work. They work like a mythological story where the
image you get from Tino Seghal’s work is as strong from the story
as it is in real life. I have heard people telling me about “this is so
contemporary” from so many different sources that I think I have
seen it, I have heard people singing “this is so contemporary, con-
temporary, contemporary” so many times that I think I was there
seeing the uniformed guards sing - at least that is what happens
in my head. In my mind children are dancing in the entrance as
well, I think I heard someone tell me that. I have also heard about
the same work with elderly people and children. Some scientists
believe that evolution has wired our brains for story telling after
thousands of years with storytelling as the primary information
source. When a person only have access to a work through story
telling, this work becomes mythological, they also hear it from
the viewers perspective making the first audience an active part of
the work. Seghal has a long list of demands when he sells a work;
for one, a person that Seghal has trained must install the work.
This means that when he dies, and the person he trained dies, the
works of Tino Seghal can never again be shown. The mythologi-

cal effect of Seghal’s way of not performing can be seen with the
works of the 70’s where the performer would perform themselves.
The works live on because we know the historical impact of them.
We also have to take into account now that most of the second
audience is online, where there before were a physical photogra-
phy in a larger collection, we now have internet and computers,
most artworks will be seen as images on a screen with no prior
explanation. When Roland Barthes in The Death of the Author
argue that the text no longer belongs to the author, but to the
reader and how he/she interprets it,18 we can draw parallels to the
spectator and the artist.
If the author is the first audience then the reader is the second.
Barthes took it a bit further, saying that all writers borrow from
various experiences and knowledge that they have obtained
through other texts:
The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the

innumerable centers of culture.19
Although Barthes was talking about texts, this is a theory that can
easily be adapted to visual arts.
What I will discuss is not the origin of a work, but rather the
weight of the interpretation added by an audience. Barthes
argues that to put a author to a text is to limit possible interpre-
tations. The explanation of a text is in the readers interpretation
not the authors.,The Critics of The Death of the Author theory
claims that the author is always present and that understanding
the life and inspiration of the author will broaden the interpreta-
tion and stay ‘true’ to the intention of the author.
18 Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author”, Image Music Text, essays select-
ed and translated by Stephen Heath (London: Fontana Press, 1977), p. 142-148
19 Barthes, “The Death of the Author”, Image Music Text, p. 146
I would claim that once the author is gone and enough time has
passed, the interpretation will happen according the knowledge
of the current time, and not the time of its origin, making the
meaning of a work change. It can also happen that the collective
understanding of a certain situation is so strong that an inter-
pretation will always be in a certain way. Let us take Barthes
argument that most signs are only meaningful because we have
attributed meaning to them.20 We can transfer the same theory to
images; if the meaning of an image will change then the collect-
ed understanding of a work will change. When a work has been
published it does not belong to the artist anymore, because that it
is out of his/her hands to direct the reading of the work.
With Live Art this concept presents a whole new problem, when
the majority of an audience is not present for the live action; can
we even talk about the existence of the work when it is not on
display? Depending on the nature of the action, the work can
exist independently of an audience, but that does not mean that
the action cannot be viewed from the medium of photography,
story telling or something completely different. The documenta-
tion will therefore be both the result of the action, and the action
in itself.
I have previously argued that Girl Squat could be categorized as

an artistic project, I will say that the photographs are the result of
a performative action. This kind of political project allows for the
project to be bigger than the visuals, why this project is relevant
to discuss in regards to the performativity of the work. There
is a clear performativity in the work where the members of the
group interact directly with the spectator. The part of the project
resulting in photography is often shared on social media where
the members of the group have direct correspondence with the
20 Barthes, “The Death of the Author”, Image Music Text, p. 147

spectator, when there are being commented on the images. The

theory of the dead author does not apply to this project (this
might be because the project is still new in a broader historical
context), but it could also be that the girls challenge the spectator
habits and expectations, by constantly changing the spectators’
perspective. I would say that the theory of the dead author only
applies when we do not know the intention of the artist. With the
social conscious projects or artworks the artist often goes to great
lengths to make their view known, the interpretation will there-
fore belong to them long after they have given it to the public.
Girl Squat is, as already mentioned, a relatively new project (2016-

2018). It is therefore possible that the physical products that has
come as a result of the project will stand alone after some time
has passed. Images is still the medium that can reach the biggest
public the fastest, it is therefore fair to assume that the images of
Girl Squat is the product that will live on independent of the big-
ger project. The book, the podcast, the interviews and the articles
will still be experienced, but by fever then the images on their
own. However when we look at Live Art from the 60’s and 70’s
they are viewed in the context of a movement, the photographic
documentation of an action does not stand alone, but is put in to
a historical context.
Barthes is right about the fact that additional knowledge from

the view of the spectator will be added, as time passes and the
spectator gets a different perspective. I think that for the Live Art
the death of the artist means that the success and influence of
a work will influence the spectator, as the spectator will have a
prior understanding of the subject. Of cause this only applies if a
project/art work has been successful.
Photography, Nikita Klæstrup, Ekaterina Krarup Andersen and Louise Kjølse, Girl
Squat, published in Ludermanifestet, 2017.
Future Manifestations
58
The weight of an image
According to Jon Erickson the use of black and white photogra-

phy in classic performance documentation enhances the pho-
tograph’s reality effect, whereas a color photo inserts itself as an
object in its own right; “There is a sense of mere utility in black-and-
white, which points to the idea that documentation is really only a
supplement to a performance having to do with context, space, action,
ideas, of which the photograph is primarily a reminder.” 21
Let us look at how a live work can manifest itself when not on dis-
play; we can have a script, a video, a scenery, a photo or a memo-
ry. Though none of these will show the original form of the work,
some will be more accurate to the atmosphere than others. Using
photography provides the obvious problem of a snapshot, where
only one specific moment will be documented. Another problem
presented here is the politics connected to the body and there-
fore live art. Performance artists mostly used this kind of docu-
mentation in the 60s and 70s. The documentation of Yves Klein’s
Anthropometry, works as an example of documentation through
a snapshot of the performance and the remains that survive after
the performance.
Anthropometry, Yves Klein, 1960.

Documentary Photograph,
21 Jon Ericson Variations: Performing Distinctions, (1999, PAJ: A Journal of

Performance)
There is a big difference in viewing an image in the context of the

time it was made and in the context of the time you view it. In
Can Images Kill Marie-José Mondzain claims that images stand
halfway between fiction and dream,22 that this perspective allows
us to question the paradox of their insignificance and their power.
We know that images are made for manipulation and control; it
is a visual that at the same time can be used to prove a point or as
evidence of certain activities, while being openly edited and ma-
nipulated with. Why else would the discussion of photoshopped
images still be relevant; we expect them to be accurate but know
that they are not. Furthermore, images have become an industry
in itself, which gives the image an economical interest.
In the fall of 2017 a case erupted where 1000 kids under 18 have
been accused of sharing children pornography on social media,
after footage of a 15 year old girl and a boy was shared on Face-
book more then 1000 times. The interesting thing here is that
the action of the two young teenagers is not illegal but sharing
the footage is. The 1000 young teenagers have been accused
under § 235 the, who spread pornographic visual recreations of
persons under 18 years, gets punished with a fine or up to 2 years
in prison. This is a big deal because it emphasizes the differ-
ence between action and reproduction. Images only exist in the
action, but it is not the action we judge rather the reproduction.
Mondzain talks about images as an instrument of power over
bodies and minds, and about how representation of violence
sells so well and are source of great profit.23 Perhaps this is why
so many shared the violent footage, not because of a profit but
online popularity. This is of cause a very different case as differ-
ent laws are applied to the privacy of two people and to art works
which are often staged and planned. I would argue that the way
we judge and view visual context is the same. We don’t judge the
action but the object that is the visual content even if their status
22 Marie-José Mondzain ,“Can Images Kill”, Critical Inquiry, trans. by Sally

Shifto, Vol 36,no 1:2009, p. 24.
23 Mondzain ,“Can Images Kill”, p. 6
is fundamentally problematic. As Mondzain points out images

appear as a sensitive reality that can simultaneously be seen
and known, but the action in itself is not an object. This creates
a problematic when we look at documentation of Live Art, if
the documentation is judged as an object and not the action the
meaning of the artwork will get lost.
Documentation as a Performative Act.
Let us consider two important photos of Live Art; the documen-

tation of Chris Burden’s Shoot (1971) and Yves Klein’s Leap into the
void (1960). It is well established that the image showing Shoot is
performance documentation, but what is Leap into the void? Is
it a staged photo? A staged documentation? When Yves Klein
made his famous work Leap into the void (1960), he did not really
jump unprotected out of the window as the photo suggest, but
Burden really did get shot is his work Shoot. In The Performativity
of Performance Documentation Philip Auslander raises the ques-
tion of what difference it makes to the conceptual understanding
of these images, that one performance ’really’ happened while
the other did not. 24 In his analysis, Auslander categorizes per-
formance documentation as either documentary or theatrical,
where the documentary category represents the traditional way
of which the relationship between a performance and its docu-
mentation is perceived. Auslander uses the assumption that the
documentation of the live event provides a record of it to be re-
constructed as well as serves the purpose of proving its existence.
The connection between performance and document is therefore
completely dependent on each other, not able to say which comes
before the other or which is the ‘original’ work. Even though the
documentation of this category is assumed to give an exact record
of the performance, this will be fragmented and incomplete (as
pointed out by Kathy O’Dell).25 This is the category that Burden’s
Shoot belong to as well as most of the performances made in the
60’s and 70’s.
The Performed Photography that includes Cindy Sherman’s pho-

tographs of herself in various disguises, most of the performances
by Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Candice Breitz most resent work
Love Story (2016), plus many more, belongs to the theatrical
24 Philip Auslander, ”The Performativity of Performance Documentation”, PAJ:

A Journal of Performance and Art, 28: 2006, p.1
25 Kathy O’Dell, ’’Displacing the Haptic: Performance Art, the Photographic
Document and the 1970s.’’ Performance Reseach 2, 1:1997, p. 73-74.
26 Auslander, ”The performativity of performance documentation”, p.2
category, all examples of performances staged only to be pho-

tographed or filmed. In this case, the documentation is the only
space where the performance exists. Klein’s Leap belongs to this
category, as this was an event mainly arranged for the camera.
Klein had only invited photographers and close friends (mainly
to act as proof of the event) to view the performance. He jumped
several times to get the right expression on his face, and where
it on the picture looks as if he is jumping with out any security
there in fact was installed a net for him to fall to. When develop-
ing the photo Klein layered two images on top of each other to
create the elution of him falling to the ground.
I will return to the question: What difference does the fact that
the image of Burden documents something that really happened
while the image of Klein does not, make to our understanding of
these images in relation to the concept of performance
documentation?
According to Auslander there is no difference if we look at the

historical constitution of these events as performances. The
identity of documented performances as performances is not
dependent on the presence of an audience, and therefore studio
fabricated performance documentation cannot be dismissed
as performance because of its lack of an audience. Rather Aus-
lander suggests that performance art is constituted through
the performativity of its documentation, which is equally true
for both Burden’s piece and Klein’s. The same argument can be
used to define Cindy Sherman’s photography’s as Live Art with
only the camera as first audience, the work might be presented
through photography, but there is a performativity in the action
of producing the photography. That the action is captured for
photography doesn’t make it any less performative; the live action
needs the photography as the photography needs the action. It is
possible to experience a work without being physically present

27 Amelia Jones, ““Presence” in Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation”, Performance Art: (Some) Theory for its presentation. Amelia Jones writes about performances that
she has not attended herself. The problematic of writing about
live works that you have not physically experienced is that you
have to approach body artworks through their photographic,
textual, oral, video and/or film traces. Jones argues that the
problematic of not being physical present is logistical rather than
ethical or hermeneutic.27 When not present one has to approach
the through photography, textual, oral, video and/or film traces.
Jones argues against that being present gives you the privileged
relationship to the historical ‘truth‘ of the performance, and that
the artists needs and intentions should be held higher then the
intuition and responses of the person viewing the documenta-
and (Selected) Practice at the End of This Century, Art Journal, Vol 56: 1997, p 11-18
tion.
Without knowing the artist you can assess the work without
being entrapped in the artists idea of what the work is (or was)
about. This is also in line with the dead author theory; The
documentary traces of a work can be put as high as the artists
intention. This knowledge should not be privileged over the
documentary traces. Either way there is no guarantee for the
audience to have any knowledge of the intention of the artist, or
the audience might have a deep historical, political, social and
personal context for a specific performance. What is ‘’the real’’ is
a subjective question, as it refers to the experience of the specta-
tor. If a spectator can experience a performative documentation,
as that of Sherman or Klein, then a spectator will also be able to
experience the documentation of a live action.
Most often Live Art become meaningful in later years, as it is diffi-

cult to identify the patterns of history when in the middle of it. In
the case of Live Art, the spectator often experience the actions in
relation to other performances or political social happenings at
the time. This give the documentation an advantage compared to

the original work as the relationship between body/subject to its
documentation is in the era of where it takes place. I have experi-
enced Schneemann’s Interior Scroll, through a series of black and
white photos, as have Jones. My knowledge of this work comes
mainly from an art historical context. I did not experience the
work physically but I understand the work, and I know the rele-
vance of it.
The Tate modern has Tate BMV live performance, where they
present live performances in an online space. Emily Roysdon
presented her work I am a Helicopter, Camera, Queen on May 31
2012 in the room next to the turbine hall, fallowed by a Q and A
where online viewers could write in questions. The only physical
present audience was the camera, the camera is not a performer
the camera controls our gaze. We the audience see everything
through the eyes of the camera, the camera is the first audience
and we the second, but this is as much a performance as anything
we would see live and it is in line with how we get most of our
information anyways. Within the problematic of how to keep the
documentation as close to the performance as possible. Here the
documentation and the view of the performance the same. But
does it then make a difference if it is seen live or after? I would say
that when viewed live, that will be the original performance and
anything viewed after that is documentation even though it is the
same footage viewed on the same platform. To argue this I will go
back to Auslander argument of the photography being treated as
a piece of the real world, rather then a substitute for it. To make
this argument Auslander quotes Helen Gilbert and her statement
the fact that the photograph as not only representationally accu-
rate but ontologically connected to the real world, is what allows
the photography to exist as an object in its own right, not only a
substitute for it.28
28 Auslander, ”The performativity of performance documentation”, p. 1

I am making the assumption that there is no difference in the ob-

jectification in a photograph and a video as documentation. The
relationship between performance and photo camera is the same
as the relationship between performance and video camera. The
question of the relationship between action and photography in
Kleins’ Leap into the void is the same as the question of the rela-
tionship between I am a Helicopter, Camera, Queen and the video
available. I am a Helicopter, Camera, Queen works both as a perfor-
mance and as what Auslander calls performative documentation.
If we agree with the traditional way of defining a performance as
an event having an autonomous existence prior to its documen-
tation, then the live works at Tate are something else, a video in
its own right rather than a performance. But whether audience or
not, both are staged and planned and we need not forget perfor-
mance dependence on documentation to attain symbolic status
within the realm of culture. In that case what is the origin of I am
a Helicopter, Camera, Queen? Is it the shown footage, which is all
we are presented? Or is it the room and what happened in the
room? Were the first audience the performers and we the sec-
ond? In an interview given after Roysdon talks about how it was
important for her to work with volunteers and create a space for
viewers, creating an experience for the performers as well.
Documentation as activism
We have established the activist nature of Live Art and covered

the impact of imagery. I will in this chapter discuss the activ-
ist possibilities of documentation. We have established that a
performative activity can have an activist effect when performed
in the right place. Likewise can an image have an atavistic effect,
which we lately have seen on social media, where a big part of
social movements take place. Images are a big part of this type of
activism and serve the same purpose as the physical performative
activities and social media used as the public space. An example
of an efficient movement using images on social media, was the
movement of Turkish woman posting pictures of themselves
laughing under #direnkahkaha as a protest to a speech given by
the then debuty primeminister in 2014.
Although this was not an artistic process they used images to pro-
test and to tell a story. The woman were told not to laugh in pub-
lic, so they reacted by laughing on an even broader public space:
The social media. Likewise has the movement of body positivity
largely taken place on social media. From an artistic point of
view, this platform can be used as the red square was used as the
framing of Pavlensky performance’s, or that the lecture of Sch-
neemann was the frame of her performance. Social media is the
frame of the images by Ekaterina Krarup Andersen.
The trouble with social media as the frame of activist behavior is

that is works as both a public space and a gallery space. Would
one make an exhibition shown in a gallery space with the pho-
tography’s of Ekaterina Krarup Andersen they would function
as an historical relevance or a suggestion to a discussion, rather
than the direct effect they have when shown in the frame of social
media. Bishop points out the issues of social projects tending to
photograph very badly, and the images conveying very little of the
contextual information. Where the participatory art challenge
the passive spectator, that has been the tradition of art viewing.
Interior Scroll does not have the same effect now as it did because
we see it in a historical context. The images of Andersen ask for
the participation on the media they are presented on and does
therefore hold the same provocative effect as Interior Scroll did.
I would say that the success of a participatory or activist work
lies in the expectation of the spectator, when you frame a work
in a way that does not ask for any participation from the viewer
it looses its effect. This is where the question of documentation
as an activist mean becomes tricky, it is not that an image of a
performative action or what I previously have called performative
documentation can’t have an effect, as seen with Cindy Sher-
man, but the question is whether or not is it possible to view it
as anything but a historical reference. The actions live on in the
documentation when the story of the action is still alive. The
performance of Pussy Riot is still relevant, because that the conse-
quence of their actions till are relevant.
69
Conclusion 70
Art, in particular Live Art, is often specific to its time because of

its social engagement, but that doesn’t mean that the Live Art
can not be relevant or experienced in a historical context. The
feminist art movement that broke out in the 1960’s is still relevant
today due to the political discussions going on. This doesn’t mean
that the performances like Interior Scroll has the same shocking
effect as in 1975, but the concept of the performance can still be
experienced. We all know that no activity is independent from
previous activities, or the activities that will come. The same goes
for the feminist art movement, although the protests were new at
the time (or at least new as a recognized art movement) the meth-
ods of involving the spectator derives from methods of protests
and the evolution of performative actions in the first half of the
20th century.
The activist Live Art is, as its name suggest, a form of activism
framed within an artistic practice. It is based on actions that as-
pire to make a change beyond art. To do this efficiently there need
to be a direct relation between artwork and the targeted audi-
ence. The activity will therefore often take place in a public space
where the action cannot be hidden by the ‘secure’ frame of art.
They enter the places that they are protesting. When an artist
protest the established art world, the protest belongs in the space
of fine arts. This is also why the feeling of activism in live art is
so strong, because we know that it can be used as a successful
tool of protest or activism if done in the right place: Schneemann
performed Interior Scroll during a film festival, although it was a
scheduled performance she performed something different from
what was expected, Pussy Riot staged a performance in Moscow’s
Cathedral of Christ, Pyotr Pavlensky at the red square, the futur-
ists staged their events in theaters and Girl Squat on social media.
They all perform in the space of the public they are targeting.
The tradition of activist activities in art is therefore more about
71 Conclusion
the relationship between artwork and spectator than the artist.
This tradition of using Live Art as a means of activism has result-

ed in the body being a general symbol of freedom; this I would
argue is in big parts because of the feminists. With the feminists
the body became a subject in itself, where it previously had been
used as an accent.
The use of a body doing the thing being protested, has been
criticized many times. Whether it is objectifying your own body
as the critiques have often been for Girl Squat, or create a financial
system like Sierra. In both cases it is using a system rather then
abusing it. When Girl Squat creates images of them posing sexual
they challenge the perspective of the spectator. When Sierra paid
six men a minimum wage to get tattooed, he used his possession
to illustrate a power structure.
The heritage of the feminist art movement is exactly this: the

political body. It is the idea that all bodies have a story and all
bodies is a vessel for its time. If a live work has nothing to do with
identification at any sort, the type of body chosen still chang-
es the impact and concept of the work – in this is the political
impact. Girl Squat has been very successful partly because of the
frame of the project and the visuals as a result of their activities.
Primarily using social media they use a public platform where
the visuals aren’t that much different from many others in the
same place. They play with an esthetic already known but chang-
es the agenda. The project is efficient when the agenda of the
artist, the visuals and the spectator clash. Why I would call Girl
Squat an artistic project with a socio-political agenda, much like
the feminist performance art of the 70’s.
In my own practice I am concerned with the immigration of

subjects through art history in particular with in the economy of
Conclusion 72
beauty and female figure. I strive to make non-event performa-

tive actions in Live Installations that deals with infinity in a time
specific work. Centered around imagery of young girls that have
affected me and my way of looking at the female body, I employs
the bodies of my performers to extreme objectification. There
is therefore a theoretical possibility of an eternal setting, being
viewed as a still life.
The other part of my practice is in the political agenda already
subscribed to different bodies: What does age, gender, weight,
sexual orientation and race mean to the perception of the spec-
tator. The simple choice of framing either of these bodies defines
the story being told, the neutral body doesn’t exist.
Barthes argues that most signs are only meaningful because we

have assigned meaning to them. The same can be applied to all
visuals, we add the knowledge already attained to any visual we
see. Because of this, the spectator will get a different perspective
as time passes.
For Live Art, the end of the artistic activity does not imply the end
of the influence of the works, it will still have an impact on the
spectator because the spectator will have a prior understanding
of the subject. Of course this only applies if a project/art work has
been successful. When the visuals obtain a life separate from the
action they can carry a greater meaning and weight. This creates
a problem when we look at documentation of Live Art. If the doc-
umentation is judged as an object and not the action, the mean-
ing of the artwork will get lost. It is however possible to experi-
ence a work without being physically present for its presentation.
An action captured in a photograph is not any less performative
than the action in itself, as the live action needs the photography
as the photography needs the action, but when one image is the
result of an action we have to be aware of the impact it can have
on the experience of the work.
73 Conclusion
For all the Live works I have discussed I have not seen any myself,
but I have experienced them through photography, textual, oral,
video and/or film traces, which gives me the advantage of viewing
them in a historical context. This is also the exact reason why the
essence of a live work will change in time and why the
documentation will turn into a work independent of the original
action. Because of its independence the documentation can have
an activist outcome, and not only be viewed as an
historical reference.
75
Bibliography 76
Philip Auslander The performativity of performance documentation

(New York: PAJ-A Journal of Performance and Art Volume 28,
2006)
Roland Barthes, “The death of the author”, Image Music Text,

essays selected and trans by Stephen Heath (London: Fontana
Press, 1977)
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, (London: British broadcasting Corpo-

ration and Penguin Books, 1972)
Claire Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS Participatory Art and the Politics

of Spectatorship (London, New York: Verso, 2012)
RoseLee Goldberg, Live Art 1909 to the Present (New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1979)
Edith Hall, Greek Tragedy - Suffering under the Sun (Oxford: OUP
Oxford 2010)
Amelia Jones, ““Presence” in Absentia: Experiencing Perfor-

mance as Documentation”, Performance Art: (Some) Theory and
(Selected) Practice at the End of This Century, Art Journal, Vol 56: 1997
Marie-José Mondzain ,“Can Images Kill”, Critical Inquiry, trans. by

Sally Shifto, Vol 36,no 1: 2009
Lilo Nein, Writing Performance: On Relations between Text and Per-

formances (Vienna: Galerie Michaela Stock, 2017)
Kathy O’Dell, ’’Displacing the Haptic: Performance Art, the Pho-

tographic Document and the 1970s.’’ Performance Reseach 2, 1:1997
77 Bibliography
Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, (London, New

York: Routledge, 1993)
Steve Rose, “Carolee Schneemann: ‘I never thought I

was shocking’”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.
com/artanddesign/2014/mar/10/carole-schneemann-na-
ked-art-performance (accessed 10 March 2014)
S.T, “The fine art of human interaction”, The Economist,

https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2012/07/tino-se-
hgal (accessed 12 July 2012)
BA Thesis
Rietveld Fine Arts
31-03-2018, Amsterdam
Teachers:
Jay Tan,
Frank Mandersloot
Thesis supervisor:
Alena Alexandrova

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Spectators Journey

Ida Brottmann Hansen

Gerrit Rietveld Academie

I will attempt to map out the visual and contextual heritage of

dealing with the politics of bodies several problems arise; what

The documentation of a Live Artwork holds the key to its future

The second audience is the audience that view the Artwork in

2 Philip Auslander, ”The performativity of performance documentation”, PAJ: A

account the impact an image can have to the understanding of an

Lastly I am questioning the impact of the documentation of an

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH LIVE ART? 9

THE ACTIVIST NATURE OF LIVE ART 13

I will define all artworks that consist of the four elements:

I have a black and white photo from Yves Klein’s Anthropometrie

I am interested in knowing to what extent our understanding

With live art’s possibility of communicating directly with an

The feminist art movement is as any other art movement a

Where the futurists demonstrated the established art institutions,

of ancient Greece. Although Greek tragedies were not used as a

direct tool for demonstration and activism, they were an active

plains of the dangers of the theatrical impersonation of social

The political tradition in avant-garde art has continued up to

In Valie Export’s Tap and Touch Cinema (1968), Export invited

artanddesign/2014/mar/10/carole-schneemann-naked-art-performance (accessed 10 March 2014)

Film still, Tap and Touch Cinema, Valie Export, 1968.

Documentary Photograph, Interior Scroll, Carolee Schneemann,1975.

Activism in Live Art is still evident today and can be seen as a

Journal, https://www.calvertjournal.com/opinion/show/3365/pyotr-pavlensky-protest-art-living-pain-sculpture, (assessed

Export’s Tap and Touch Cinema took place in a public space, as

The Naked Body

The feminist art movement changed the perception of the body,

The interpretation of a Live Artwork is highly dependet on the

If we look at the naked body in art, I would argue that it chang-

Take a look at the statue Discopolus and Interior Scroll (Carolee

9 M.C. Howatson, Plato: The Symposium (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

...an architectural referent, the sources of sacred

She goes on saying “This source of interior knowledge would

The Activist Nature of Live Art

If we look at the figures in the images of Discobolus and Interior

Allegory of the Painted Woman (2012-2015) by Alexis Blake, per-

of something that had already happened, and nothing would

When looking at the documentation of Allegory of the painted

Blake is not performing herself in this perticular presentation but

In Artificial Hells Claire Bishop describes the history of artists

The tendency of hiring outside expertise to take part in an

nonprofessionals or specialists to be performing on behalf of

As an example, Bishop analyses the Italian artist Maurizio

12 Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS, p. 490-492

Cattelan’s project, Southern Suppliers FC, from 1991.13 Cattelan

..a social sculpture as cynical performance, inserted into

13 Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS, p. 493-496

The same critique can be used on many of the works by Santiago

We can in the same way question the method of objectification of

The group Girl Squat is fighting for their right to be as sexy

The project has resulted in numerous photographs (taken by Eka-

16 Ekaterina Andersen, Louise Kjølsen, Nikita Klæstrup, Ludermanifestet (Copen-

of the realms of earth, underworld, and the heavens. The figure of

B. Symbol of The Triple Goddess

Image A will for most peo- Image C is The Three Graces

When showing this project-based art form in an old format (exhi-

The desired effect on the spectator will not happen in a gallery

I would claim that the way we choose to document artwork

When Performing becomes documentation, performing