In many ways, this book resembles a field survey by authors who are also
active in their area of research; dealing with political, contextual and
gender-related issues, it proposes an epistemology of performance art
through an investigation of the means and methods of access to knowledge
and understanding of this art form, its history and (living) memory, its
current practice. This work represents a follow-up to the international
symposium entitled “Performance Art: Life of the Archive and Topicality,”
organized by the
Villa Arson and AICA France with the support of the
Getty Research Institute; it investigates the definitions and status of
performance art now that it has taken its rightful place within the extended
field of the visual arts, leading to the current boom in performance
re-enactments. The analyses proposed by the various specialist contributors—
art critics, art historians, exhibition curators, philosophers and artists—are
diverse and complementary but centered on an issue fundamental to
performance art: the archive and the status of documents, photographs and
objects that constitute or testify to performances.
