Performance Aesthetics:
The Boundaries of Art and Reality in the 1970s

Performance as a special form of artistic expression significantly expanded the ideas about the boundaries between art and reality, becoming one of the most influential phenomena in artistic practice of the 1970s. It was during this period that the institutionalization of performance took place, its recognition by museum structures and the academic community, which led to the formation of new aesthetic approaches to the perception and evaluation of artistic events.

The emergence of performance as an artistic practice

Performance (from the English performance - execution, presentation, performance) is a form of modern art, a genre of theatrical and artistic performance, in which the works are the actions of an artist or group in a certain place and time. Any situation that includes four basic elements can be attributed to performance: time, place, the artist’s body and the relationship between the artist and the viewer. This is the difference between performance and such forms of fine art as painting or sculpture, where the work is determined by the exhibited object.

The emergence of performance is associated with the problems of avant-garde painting: overcoming the pictorial space of a picture, going to the construction as the main tendency of avant-garde art. The origins of performance go back to the practices of street performances of futurists, the clowning of dadaists, the Bauhaus theater. The word "performance" was first applied to his work-action by the American composer and philosopher John Cage in 1952, who performed "4’33" on stage. As a direction of art, performance arose in the 1960s in the work of such artists as Yves Klein, Vito Acconci, Hermann Nitsch, Chris Burden, Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys.

Roselee Goldberg, in her book Performance Art, notes: “Performance gained recognition in the 1970s. At that time, conceptualism, which emphasized the production of ideas rather than works of art, was on the rise, and performance often became a demonstration of these ideas or their embodiment. Thus, performance became the most visible art form of the period.” Large international art centers began to have performance spaces, museums began to sponsor festivals, art colleges began to offer courses in performance, and specialized magazines appeared.

Basic principles of performance art

The fundamental difference between performance and other forms of art is its process and eventfulness. Performance does not create an object, but an event that unfolds in time and space with the direct participation of the artist and the audience.

The artist’s body becomes the main instrument and material of art. As Yves Klein noted, one can paint not from models, but through their bodies: he orders naked models to roll around in blue paint, and then press their bodies against prepared canvases. This corporeality of performance radically changes the relationship between the artist and his work: the artist does not create something separate from himself, he himself becomes part of the work.

A work of art in a performance loses its materiality, dissolving and finding its place in the participants of the process: artists and spectators. Performance is very attentive to corporality, it appeals more to sensory perception than to rational, which is how it differs from fine art and sculpture.

Theoretical Foundations of Performance Aesthetics

The performative turn in aesthetics is connected with the rethinking of the role and meaning of corporeality in art. Tactility and corporeality become important categories of performance aesthetics. As noted in the article “Tactile aesthetics in vestimentary fashion”, the development of tactile aesthetics, the essence of which lies in the combination of beauty and usefulness, did not occur over a long historical period, since there was a dismissive attitude towards touch as the lowest of the senses.

The article "Aesthetics as a Practice of Equality" attempts to trace the development of aesthetics from an orientation toward sensory cognition to an artistic practice that serves as an intellectual critique of society. In this form, aesthetics becomes a practice of equality, which Kant already grasped in his antinomy of taste, having discovered in it the element of "common feeling" (sensus communis), which cannot be reduced to any individual manifestation of sensuality.

When sensus communis is introduced as the basic principle of the aesthetics of equality, the place of philosophical concepts is taken by affective images that influence the public, and the distinction between sophisticated and naive perception is lost. Like the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses, these are action-images that are transversal to established institutions, including democratic ones, which affirm equality as one of the values. But equality is not a value, but a practical principle that, in order to become a principle of thought, must master the critical potential of art.

Erika Fischer-Lichte’s Aesthetics of Performativity

In her book "The Aesthetics of Performativity", Erika Fischer-Lichte proposes a new aesthetic theory capable of adequately describing and interpreting performance art. She understands performance as an independent artistic event with its own essence. Fischer-Lichte examines performance art with no less attention than is customary in science in relation to traditional forms of art, explores the origins of performance and its contemporary existence and comes to the conclusion about the need to create a new aesthetics capable of describing and interpreting it.

In the final chapters of his book, the author formulates the basic concepts of the new aesthetics, intended not only to interpret individual performances and “events”, but also to more deeply understand the performative nature of contemporary culture as a whole.

The key concepts of the aesthetics of performativity are:

1. Eventfulness – performance creates not an object, but an event that unfolds in time and space with the participation of the artist and the audience.
2. Corporeality – the artist’s body becomes the medium of art, which changes the traditional idea of the separation between the artist and his work.
3. Presence is a special quality of being here and now, which creates a specific aesthetic effect.
4. Liminality is a state of transition, in-betweenness, blurring of boundaries between different categories and states.

Performance and Theatre of the 70s

The relationship between performance and theatre in the 1970s is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. As noted in the study “Performance and Soviet Theatre in the 1970s-80s”, the meeting of Russian theatre with performance is usually attributed to the turn of the 1980s-90s. However, experiments with the actor’s corporeality and their shared space with the audience, the creation of a stage reality “here and now”, an interest in the materiality of the actor’s voice – all this was not alien to the Russian theatre of the last three decades of the 20th century, from Yuri Lyubimov to Anatoly Vasiliev and his students.

New Trends in Acting

Soviet acting of the 1970s demonstrates trends that are in tune with the aesthetics of performance. As indicated in the study, the most important feature of acting is the expansion of the boundaries of creativity. The actor becomes an artist participating in the entire process of creating a performance. He finds the basis for searching for new means of expression in dramaturgy, which provides material for revealing the essence of life phenomena, and in the director’s concept of the performance, which determines the direction of theatrical art.

A certain breaking of the boundaries of creativity occurs, its range expands. But this does not exclude the clarity of the actors’ positions in art, the manifestation of stylistic features. Many actors become artists of a certain theme, carrying it out in images of different nature, which emphasizes the purposefulness, the deep significance of their art.

In the late 50s and early 60s, the principle of intellectual creativity was firmly established, the most important achievement of which was the birth of the actor-thinker, bringing philosophical generalizations and deep moral reflections to the viewer. In the 70s, actors began to strive to enrich the rationality of creativity with subtle psychologism, immersion in the emotional, poetic sphere, and a close examination of the inner world of man.

One of the most important signs of theatrical art is the actor’s desire for self-expression. It manifests itself through an excited attitude to the acute problems of life, the ability to defend moral principles, to expose philistine indifference, the philosophy of compromise. The artistic power of the performance, the significance of the stage action largely depends on the personality of the actor. A truthful display of reality is combined with a clear assessment of life phenomena given by the performer.

What is of great importance for the acting art of the 70s is that the boundaries of art and reality merge so much that you forget about the conventions of acting. This directly echoes the aesthetics of performance, which is characterized by the erasure of the boundaries between art and reality.

Blurring the lines between art and reality

One of the key aspects of performance aesthetics is the blurring of traditional boundaries between art and reality. Unlike representative forms of art, performance creates a situation of immediate presence and interaction.

Transformation of the role of the spectator

Performance radically changes the role of the viewer in the artistic process. Although viewers may not be directly involved in what is happening, their usual position as observers is destroyed. You may not empathize with a work of art, but it is much more difficult to distance yourself from the artist’s physical suffering, which is happening here and now. Viewers become more active internally.

Spectators are faced with not only aesthetic but also ethical questions - anyone can come up and somehow help the artist, ease his situation or stop the performance altogether. Often, the performance deliberately provokes the viewer to action, puts him in an awkward position, forcing him to make decisions.

This new relationship between artist and viewer creates a special dynamic of interaction that becomes part of the artistic event. The viewer is no longer just a consumer of art, but an active participant in its creation.

Materiality and immateriality in performance

A work of art in the context of performance loses its traditional materiality, dissolving and finding its place in the participants of the process: artists and spectators. Performance is very attentive to corporeality, it appeals to sensory perception rather than rational, which is how it differs from fine art and sculpture.

In performance, the artist’s body itself becomes the material and means of expression. This radically changes the relationship between the artist and his work. In traditional art, the artist creates an object separate from himself. In performance, the artist does not create something separate from himself, he himself becomes part of the work.

Types of performative practices in the 70s

Performance as an artistic form is represented by various types and directions, each of which has its own characteristics and features.

Existential performance

This type of performance includes Bruce Nauman’s "Man/Woman, Incident of Violence" (1985) and Marina Abramovic’s "Balkan Baroque". The characteristic feature of this type is the desire for extreme manifestation of tactile sadism, active mobility and a well-thought-out scenario, expressed in a rigid fixation of the end.

In existential performance, the artist often subjects himself to physical challenges and even danger, exploring the limits of human endurance and patience. This type of performance raises questions about the nature of pain, suffering, violence and their place in human experience.

Body art

Body art is a performance art movement in which the artist’s body becomes the primary material and medium of art. It can include various manipulations of the body: from its decoration and transformation (e.g., with makeup, costumes, tattoos) to more radical forms of intervention, such as piercing, scarification, body modification.

Body art explores the relationship between the body and identity, between the physical and the mental, between the natural and the cultural. It often touches on issues of gender, sexuality, cultural norms and taboos related to the body.

Happening

Happenings are characterized by a greater degree of improvisation and audience participation. In a happening, the artist creates a situation or event, but does not completely control its development, leaving room for spontaneous actions and reactions of the audience.

Happenings often take place in public places and involve random passers-by, blurring the boundaries between art and everyday life. They create situations that require immediate reaction and active participation from participants.

Political performance

Political performance uses artistic means to express political ideas and criticize social institutions. This type of performance often has a clearly expressed social or political focus and seeks to cause public resonance.

Political performance can be a form of protest, an act of civil disobedience, a way to draw attention to social problems. It often takes place in public spaces and uses symbolic actions to convey a political message.

Aesthetic and ethical problems of performance

Performance as an art form raises many complex aesthetic and ethical issues that require serious reflection.

Ethics of interaction between artist and viewer

In traditional art, the relationship between artist and viewer is governed by established conventions: the artist creates the work, and the viewer perceives it, while they are physically and temporally separated. Performance art destroys this convention by creating a situation of direct interaction between artist and viewer in a common space and time.

This can create complex ethical situations, especially when the performance involves elements of risk, violence, intimacy, or violation of social norms. For example, a performance may place the viewer in the position of witnessing violence or suffering, which creates an ethical dilemma: should the viewer intervene to stop the artist’s suffering, or should he remain a passive observer, respecting the artistic intent?

Corporality and pain in performance

Many famous performances include elements of physical discomfort or even pain, which raises questions about the boundaries of art and the ethics of such practices. If an artist voluntarily subjects himself to physical suffering as part of an artistic work, what is the status of this suffering? Is it simply a means to an artistic effect, or does it have independent value and meaning?

This question is related to the broader issue of the ethics of self-harm in art. Traditionally, there is a taboo in Western culture against intentionally causing physical harm to oneself, and this taboo is often violated in performance. This creates a tension between aesthetic and ethical evaluations: an action that may be aesthetically significant and expressive may simultaneously be ethically problematic.

Social responsibility of the artist

Performance often acts as a form of social criticism, touching on pressing social issues. In this context, questions arise about the social responsibility of the artist and how effective art can be as a tool for social change.

If a performance involves actions that would normally be considered unethical or illegal, does the artistic context exempt the artist from ordinary ethical and legal constraints? This question is particularly relevant for political performance, which often includes elements of civil disobedience or protest.

The Influence of Performance on Contemporary Culture

Performance art has had a significant influence on various aspects of contemporary culture, going beyond art itself and penetrating into various spheres of human activity.

Performativity as a cultural paradigm

In her book "The Aesthetics of Performativity", Erika Fischer-Lichte formulates the basic concepts of a new aesthetics intended not only to interpret individual performances and "events", but also to better understand the performative nature of contemporary culture as a whole. This indicates that performativity is becoming a cultural paradigm that goes beyond individual artistic practices and penetrates into various spheres of culture.

Performativity as a cultural paradigm means that many phenomena of contemporary culture acquire the characteristics of performance: eventfulness, corporeality, presence, involvement of the viewer or participant, blurring of the boundaries between art and life.

Influence on other arts

Performance has influenced theatre, changing ideas about the role of the actor and the audience, about the structure of theatrical action, about the space of the theatre. Contemporary theatre often uses elements of performance: the immediacy of the action, the involvement of the audience, the blurring of the boundaries between the stage and the auditorium, between the actor and his role.

Performance has also influenced dance, particularly contemporary dance and dance theatre. Ideas about the body as a medium of art, about movement as a form of communication, about spontaneity and improvisation are all elements that performance has brought into dance.

Music has also been influenced by performance, especially in such directions as experimental and electronic music, sound art, noise. Ideas about sound as a material, about the process of creating music as a performative act, about erasing the boundaries between composer, performer and listener - all this is connected with the aesthetics of performance.

Under the influence of performance, visual art has become more processual, corporeal, and temporal. Practices such as installation, environment, and land art often include performative elements and require the active participation of the viewer.

Performance and media culture

Performance is also an important part of modern media culture. In the era of social networks and digital technologies, many forms of self-presentation and communication acquire a performative character. Selfies, vlogs, streams - all of these can be considered forms of performance, in which a person becomes both an artist and a work of art.

The future of performance as an art form is linked to the further development of technology and media, to changes in the social and cultural sphere, to new forms of human experience and communication. Virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, biotechnology – all this creates new opportunities for performance art and raises new questions about the boundaries between art and life, between the human and the non-human, between the real and the virtual.

Performance as an art form blurs the traditional boundaries between art and reality, between artist and viewer, between the work and the process of its creation. This makes performance a particularly interesting object for aesthetic research, but also creates difficulties for its theoretical understanding.

These features were especially evident in the performance of the 1970s, which became an important stage in the development of this art form. During this period, performance was recognized as a full-fledged form of contemporary art, became part of the artistic mainstream, and gained institutional support.

The performance of the 70s is closely connected with conceptualism and its ideas about the priority of the idea over the material embodiment, about the demystification of art, about the criticism of art institutions. It also reflects the social and political problems of that time, explores questions of identity, power, corporality, gender.

The aesthetics of performance includes such key concepts as eventfulness, corporeality, presence, which reflect its processual, temporal, corporeal nature. These concepts form a new aesthetics that can adequately describe and explain the phenomenon of performance art.

Performance has had a significant impact on various forms of art and culture in general. Performativity has become an important characteristic of modern culture, penetrating into various spheres of human activity and transforming ideas about artistic creativity, communication, and social interaction.

Performance aesthetics opens up new horizons for the study of art and its relationship to life, for rethinking traditional concepts of aesthetics, for creating new forms of artistic experience and communication. It also poses important ethical questions about the boundaries of art, the responsibility of the artist, the role of the viewer, the meaning of corporeality and pain in art.