Performance art in Eastern Europe since 1960

385 Pages·2017·96.414 MB·English

by  Amy Bryzgel

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This volume presents the first comprehensive academic study of the history e
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and development of performance art in the former communist countries of f
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Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe since the 1960s. Covering twenty-
r Performance art
one countries and more than 250 artists, in addition to filling a lamentable m
gap in the literature on performance art and highlighting the diversity of a
practice across this very large and varied region of Europe, this text offers the n
in Eastern Europe
following thesis: that artists from Eastern Europe were both connected to and c
e
independent of developments in the West, developing their performative

and experimental work concurrently with artists in Western Europe and a
since 1960
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North America.  t

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The first chapter casts a wide net over the beginning and development of
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performative practices in the East since the 1960s, citing seminal actions
a
and happenings and early performances. The next four chapters address s Amy Bryzgel
common themes undertaken by artists in the region: the body, gender, politics te
and identity and institutional critique. The author’s method is comparative, r
n
employing Piotr Piotrowski’s ‘horizontal art history’ to examine the centre

from the perspective of the periphery. Bryzgel also examines performance art E
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practices from a socio-historical and socio-political perspective, demonstrating
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how experimental art can serve as a litmus test for the limits of tolerance and o
prohibition in post-totalitarian communist Eastern Europe. p
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As the first comprehensive survey of the subject, this text is essential for those s
i
in the field of performance studies, or those researching contemporary Eastern n
European art. It will also be of interest to those in Slavic studies, art history and c
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visual culture.

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Amy Bryzgel is Senior Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture at the University of Aberdeen
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Cover image:
KwieKulik, Activities for the Head: Three Acts, 1978, Lublin.
Courtesy of Zofia Kulik
ISBN 978-1-7849-9422-8
9 781784 994228
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
BRYZ000_PB.indd 1 17/01/2017 16:54
Performance art in Eastern Europe since 1960
series editors
Amelia G. Jones, Marsha Meskimmon
Rethinking Art’s Histories aims to open out art history from its most basic structures by
fsoerreiegsr oeduintdoirnsg work that challenges the conventional periodisation and geographical
sAumbfieelilad sG o. Jf otrnaedsit, iMonaarls harat Mhisetsokriym, amndo naddressing a wide range of visual cultural forms
from the early modern period to the present.
TRheethsein bkoinogk sA wrti’lsl aHciksntoorwielse dagime st hteo iomppeanc to ouft raercte hnits tsochryo lfarorsmhi pit so n our understanding
omf othste bcaosmicp sletrxu tcetmurpeos rbalyit ifeosr eagnrdo cuanrdtoinggra pwhoierks tthhaatt hchavaell eenmgeersg ed through centuries
othf ew coorlndv-wenidteio tnraadl ep,e prioolidtiicsaalt icoonlo annisda tgioeno ganradp thhiec adl isauspbofireicld ms oovf ement of people and
ideas across national and continental borders.
traditional art history, and addressing a wide range of visual
cultural forms from the early modern period to the present.
Also available in the series
Art, museums and touch Fiona Candlin
These books will acknowledge the impact of recent scholarship on
The ‘do-it-yourself’ artwork: Participation from fluxus to relational aesthetics Anna Dezeuze (ed.)
Foluesrh uinngd oeurstt saunrfdaicnegs: oSkf itnh ien cFroemncphl eaxrt t aenmdp moerdalicitiinees, 1a6n5d0 –c1a8r5t0o grMapehcihetsh ild Fend
Tthhae tp hoalitvieca el maeestrhgeetdic st horf othueg Ahr mceenntiaunri easv aonf tw-goarrldde-:w Thidee jo turarndeey, opfo thlitei c‘paal interly real’,
1c9o8lo7–n2is0a0t4io nA anngde ltah He adruiatsypuonryiacn movement of people and ideas
Tahcero mssa tntaert ioofn mali raancldes c: Noneatipnoelintatanl bbaorordqeures .sanctity and architecture Helen Hills
The face of medicine: Visualising medical masculinities in late nineteenth-century Paris
Mary Hunter
Glorious catastrophe: Jack Smith, performance and visual culture Dominic Johnson
Otherwise: Imagining queer feminist art histories Amelia Jones and Erin Silver (eds)
After the event: New perspectives in art history Charles Merewether and John Potts (eds)
Photography and documentary film in the making of modern Brazil Luciana Martins
Women, the arts and globalization: Eccentric experience Marsha Meskimmon and Dorothy
Rowe (eds)
Flesh cinema: The corporeal turn in American avant-garde film Ara Osterweil
After-affects|after-images: Trauma and aesthetic transformation in the virtual feminist
museum Griselda Pollock
Vertiginous mirrors: The animation of the visual image and early modern travel
Rose Marie San Juan
The paradox of body, building and motion in seventeenth-century England
Kimberley Skelton
The newspaper clipping: A modern paper object Anke Te Heesen, translated by Lori Lantz
Screen/space: The projected image in contemporary art Tamara Trodd (ed.)
Art and human rights: Contemporary Asian contexts Caroline Turner and Jen Webb
Timed out: Art and the transnational Caribbean Leon Wainwright
Performative monuments: Performance, photography, and the rematerialisation of public art
Mechtild Widrich

Dezeuze_00_Prelims.indd 2 18/02/2010 09:35
Performance art in Eastern Europe
since 1960
Amy Bryzgel
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Amy Bryzgel 2017
The right of Amy Bryzgel to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester m1 7ja
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
isbn 978 1 7849 9421 1 hardback
isbn 978 1 7849 9422 8 paperback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does
not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or
appropriate.
Typeset in Minion with Myriad display
by Koinonia, Manchester
For Matt

Contents
List of figures page ix
Introduction 1
1
Sources and origins 10
2
The body 103
3
Gender 165
4
Politics and identity 223
5
Institutional critique 298

Epilogue 338
Select bibliography 340
Index 346

Figures
1.1 Milan Knížák, Short-Term Exhibition, 1962, Prague. Courtesy:
Milan Knížák page 15
1.2 Aktual Group, A Walk Around Novy Svet: A Demonstration for All
the Senses, 13 December 1964, Prague. Courtesy: Milan Knížák 16
1.3 Milan Knížák, Demonstration for One, 16 December 1964, Prague.
Courtesy: Milan Knížák 17
1.4 Tomislav Gotovac, Showing Elle, 1962, Zagreb. Courtesy: Zora and
Sarah Gotovac and the Tomislav Gotovac Institute 20
1.5 Tadeusz Kantor, in a performance of The Water Hen, 1972, The
Poorhouse, Edinburgh. Courtesy: Richard Demarco and the
Richard Demarco Art Archive 21
1.6 Alex Mlynárčik, Eva’s Wedding, 1972, Žilina (Czechoslovakia/
Slovakia). Courtesy: Alex Mlynárčik 22
1.7 Paul Neagu, Collecting Merits, 1968, Bucharest. Still from b/w film
with sound, 10:04 min. © The Estate of Paul Neagu, All Rights
Reserved, DACS. Courtesy: Ivan Gallery, Bucharest 24
1.8 Tamás Szentjóby, Gábor Altorjay and Miklós Erdély, The Lunch: In
Memoriam Batu Khan, 25 June 1966, Budapest. Courtesy: Tamás
St.Auby (Tamás Szentjóby) 25
1.9 Tomislav Gotovac, Happ: Naš-Happening, restaged version of a
happening in 1968. Still from film An Accidental Life. Courtesy:
Zora and Sarah Gotovac and the Tomislav Gotovac Institute 27
1.10 Zvono, Sport and Art, 1986, Sarajevo. Courtesy: Sarajevo Centre
for Contemporary Art 30
1.11 Bálint Szombathy, The Trails, 1970 (reconstructed in 1974), Novi
Sad. Courtesy: Bálint Szombathy 31
1.12 Bálint Szombathy, Lenin in Budapest, 1972, Budapest. Photographic
performance. Courtesy: Bálint Szombathy 32
1.13 Milenko Matanović, Happening with a Vacuum Cleaner and a
Plastic Tube in Zvezda Park, 1968, Ljubljana. Courtesy: Moderna
galerija, Ljubljana 33