The ephemeral and its materialisations. Towards a redefinition of performance art

Abstract

There is a broad consensus in the art world that performance can be defined as an action that takes place within a certain time and space. There is also a theoretical debate in regard to documenting performance art. The position of the established paradigm on performance art documentation has been rebutted in practice on two fronts: that the very history of performance art is not consistent with constant disappearance; and regarding how performance art is treated in contemporary art museums. Performance art was eventually museified in the 1990s, completely adapting to the rules of the museum. The paper proposes a redefinition of performance that takes its materialization seriously: its ephemeral nature, the action and the co-presence of the public