Archiv-Fragen
The ephemeral and its materialisations
Ayerbe Nerea (Bilbao)
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. The new medium sought to avoid the subordination of art to the market that had been in place until then. 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: on the one hand, that the very history of performance art is not consistent with constant disappearance; and, on the other hand, 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. What follows is a review of the three features proposed by the established paradigm, after which I propose a redefinition of performance that takes its materialization seriously: its ephemeral nature, the action and the co-presence of the public.