Marie Abramovic presented the 2 naked bodies at the entrance to the exhibit
Where does a performance start and where does a performance finish. After watching several different examples of site specific performances, from the video ‘The Many Headed Monster’ it showed that performances are not a set time or limit. Imponderabilia (1977) by Marina Abramovic created a performance where the audience were unaware that the performance had started and finished before they had experienced the exhibit in the museum they had gone to see. I found it intriguing where the boundary of the beginning and end of a performance lies.
‘Test Site’ 2007 at the Tate Modern also explored where the performance started and ended. For the participants, the performance was their experience on the slide and the process. The performance for them ended when they came to the bottom of the slide, got off and carried on with their day. However the performance was the reactions to the participants as they came to the bottom of the slide and got off. The audience did not see the process of the participants experience on the slide but only their reactions when they got off. This made me think about what defines a performance; a performance does not necessarily need to have a chronologically beginning middle and end.
There are not many limits to site specific performance, the boundaries are up to the curator. Kaye stated in Site Specific Art ‘Documentation foregrounds its own limits’ suggesting the way a performance is documented and presented to an audience has no limitations, the performance has a relationship with the site and the performance shows the complexities of time and place surrounding the site.
Works Cited
Kaye, Nick, (2000) Site specific art. London, Routledge.