Session 4: Intimate Institutions

Often located in remote areas or outside the programmatic spectrum of mainstream artistic and academic institutions, many artist-run initiatives adopt pedagogical practices into their production and presentation, offering unconventional formats and less formal contexts than offered by either gallery or academic settings. On a smaller and more intimate scale, such initiatives foster the creation of alternative educational models, enable marginalized audiences access to information, and encourage the invention of new and atypical forms of knowledge. This session examines the pedagogical projects artist-run organizations around the world have set in place, among them, kitchen table knowledge production, “webs of matronage,” and detournements to the “not so-secret game of suburban one-upmanship.

Art Action 1958-1998

Documenting an interactive colloquium held in Quebec City in October of 1998, this anthology – dedicated to the memory of Dick Higgins – constitutes an essential tool in the understanding of the Action Art phenomena of the second half of the 20th century, in large part due to the thoroughness of the visual documentation and the historical and geographical fields it covers. Martel's text summarizes the various Action Art practices: Happenings, Fluxus, Intermedia, ZAJ, Body Art, Action Poetry, Actionism, Performance and Situationism. In the first part of the study, which is divided into two periods of 20 years each, nine artists and art historians characterize each genre of Action Art from 1958-1978. The second half of the study takes stock of world-wide Action Art practices from 1978-1998, as 21 specialists (including 16 of the speakers) survey specific geographical regions. Includes a list of events and performance videos, as well as a list of titles published and distributed by Éditions Intervention. Texts in French and English. Biographical notes on authors. Circa 260 bibl. ref

How We Teach Performance Art : University Courses and Workshop Syllabus

"42 different approaches to transmit the generative source of creativity in live action by internationally experienced practitioners, teachers and theorists of performance art from 21 countries." -- Publisher's website