13 Lessons in Performance Art

Performance art is currently booming as a form of artistic expression. The art genre not only combines all disciplines from theater, dance, actionism, painting to pop culture, it also enables the merging of subjective experiences and socio-political issues. Despite numerous differences between contemporary and historical performances, which certainly also reflect the changing socio-political conditions, the performance space is still the place where gender issues can be negotiated, irritated and reformulated.
While in the 1960s it was the growing strength of the feminist movement and the accompanying conscious rejection of male-dominated art forms and institutions that ensured a disproportionately strong presence of women on stage, today it is not least the issues raised at that time that younger female performers reflect on and continue to think about from new perspectives.

In the series 13 Lessons in Performance Art, the focus of the selection is on those feminist works from the mid-1960s onwards that were created specifically for the medium of film and video and which we are now also showing in a cinema context in order to take account of the inherent transdisciplinarity of the art form under changed conditions of reception.

A look back and a comparison of historical and current positions therefore seemed to us to be a necessary prerequisite for making visible the lines of development of performance art, which, as we know, is closely linked to the medium of video.

With the advent of video in the 1960s, there was finally an inexpensive medium in which a large number of female artists could retain control over the technical means and the dramaturgy: they could stand in front of and behind the camera at the same time and, in favor of a staging of the self and/or a conscious transformation of role models, abolish the difference between subject and object or image and likeness, define it themselves. From the outset, the aim was not only to portray the female body as a field of oppression through which the broader scope of dominance becomes visible. The analysis of the media, its power of manipulation and its apparatus were and are also important themes in order to illustrate the processes of perception and the construction of reality.

In compiling the thirteen programs, our aim was to crystallize key themes that are still essential to performance art today: The ongoing reflection of the medium, but also the subversion of gender norms or the sensual self-presentation with which the artists mediate between the image of the other and the self-image and question different models of subjectivity. The selected works range from milestones in feminist performance history and the present, experimental sound performances to documentary portraits. (Christa Benzer, Brigitta Burger-Utzer, Dietmar Schwärzler)

Program 1 PERFORM. PERFORM. PERFORM
Degueulasse (Carola Dertniig, AT 2009, 10 Min.)
Martha Wilson: Premiere (CA 1972, 1 Min.); Routine Performance (CA 1972, 2 Min.); Art Sucks (CA 1972, 1 Min.); Appearance As Value (CA 1972, 2 Min.); Method Art (CA 1974, 6 Min.)
I turn over the Picture of my Voice in my Head (VALIE EXPORT, AT 2009, 12 Min.)
Official Welcome (Andrea Fraser, US/DE 2001/2003, 30 Min.)
Accumulation (Trisha Brown, USA 1971/1996, 6 Min.)

Program 2 WOMAN + MAN + SEX
Monument (Sanja Ivekovic, YU 1976, 5 Min.)
Light / Dark (Abramovic/Ulay, YU/NL 1978, 7 Min.)
Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, US 1964-67, 22 Min.)
Why I didn't become a Dancer (GB 1995, 6 Min.)
Balkan Erotic Epic (Marina Abramovic, RS/US 2006, 13 Min.)
Der Spiegel (Karen Cytter, IL/DE 2007, 5 Min.)
Just say no to Family Values (John Giorno/Antonello Faretta, IT 2005, 5 Min.)

Program 3 SUBVERSION OF GENDER ROLES
Just a Meaning that you Attribute to it (Bernadette Anzengruber, AT 2008, 10 Min.)
Make Up - Make Down (Sanja Ivekovic, YU 1979, 9 Min.)
One Pussy Show (Anja Czioska, DE/FR 1998, 6 Min.)
Martha Rosler reads the Vogue (Martha Rosler, US 1982, 26 Min.)
Kip Masker (Maria Petschnig (AT 2007, 3 Min.)
Icons of Glamour, Echoes of Death (Marina Grzinic, Aina Smid, YU 1982, 12 Min.)
Deformity (Martha Wilson (CA 1974, 12 Min.)
I change, I am the same (Ann Severson, US 1969, 1 Min.)

Program 4 I AM GORGEOUS, THAT IS NOTHING NEW
Danke, es hat mich sehr gefreut (Mara Mattuschka (AT 1987, 2 Min.)
It wasn't Love (Sadie Benning, US 1992, 15 Min.)
Schenkeldrücken (Patrycja German, PL/DE 2005, 9 Min.)
...und ich will (Chantal Michel, CH 1998, 5 Min.)
Take off (Susan Mogul, US 1974, 10 Min.)
Blacky Gossip (Christophe Chemin / Vaginal Davis, DE/US 2007, 9 Min.)
Scream (High Heel Sisters, SE 2007, 2 Min.)
Aria de Mustang (Katrina Daschner, AT 2009, 18 Min.)
Blackout (Cathy Begien, US 2004, 5 Min.)

Program 5 HOME OF THE BRAVE
Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson, US 1986, 90 Min.)

Program 6 THE EXPERIENCE OF PLACE
Backyard Economy II (Martha Rosler, US 1974, 7 Min.)
Song Delay (Joan Jonas, US 1973, 18 Min.)
Strassenbilder (Hand Scheirl, AT 1979, 9 Min.)
White House (Lida Abdul, AF 2005, 5 Min.)
Swamp (Nancy Holt/Robert Smithson, US 1971, 6 Min.)
Genesis burried in Mud (Ana Mendieta, CU/US, 1975, 3 Min.)
The Experience of Place II (Helena Almeida, PL 2004, 13 Min.)
550 Jamaica Avenue (Klara Liden, SE 2004, 3 Min.)
Singspiel (Ulla von Brandenburg, DE/FR 2009, 15 Min.)

Program 7 MODES OF PERCEPTION
Totems (Lida Abdul, AF 1999-2001, 1 Min.)
Meeting Point (Sanja Ivekovic, YU 1978, 6 Min.)
Idomers (Dora Mauerer, HU 1973-1980, 10 Min.)
Vertical Roll (Joan Jonas, US 1972, 20 Min.)
Somersault. Part of Summer Salt (Steina, IS 1982, 5 Min.)
Tanz für meine Frau (Ulrike Rosenbach, DE 1977, 7 Min.)
Now (Lynda Benglis, US 1973, 12 Min.)
Me Shower, San Francisco (Anja Czioska, DE/FR/US 1994, 3 Min.)

Program 8 RUTHLESS
Underwater (Anja Czioska, FR/DE 1994, 3 Min.)
Hyperbulie (VALIE EXPORT, AT 1973, 7 Min.)
Barbed Hula (Sigalit Landau, IL 2000, 2 Min.)
Untitled. Blood Sign #2 / Body Tracks (Ana Mendieta, CU/US, 1974, 1 Min.)
AAA-AAA (Abramovic / Ulay, YU 1978, 10 Min.)
6Teen Stitches (Roberta Lima, AT/BR 2008, 12 Min.)
Allerleirauh (Viktoria Tremmel, AT 2007, 13 Min.)
Heal Me (Hester Scheurwater, NL 2000, 4 Min.)
Apologies (Anne Charlotte Robertson, US 1983-1990, 17 Min.)

Program 9 LET'S PLAY (AND WORK)
Water Walk (John Cage, US 1960, 10 Min.)
Semiotics of the Kitchen (Martha Rosler, US 1975, 6 Min.)
Songs for Lines / Songs for Waves (Laurie Anderson, US 1977, 39 Min.)
Ich arbeite (Sabine Marte, AT 1996-1998, 20 Min.)

Programm 10 MOTHER, DEAR MOTHER
Der Schöne, Die Biest (Mara Mattuschka, AT 1993, 10 Min.)
A very personal Story (Lisa Steele, CA 1974, 17 Min.)
Entwicklung mit Julia (Ulrike Rosenbach, DE 1973, 5 Min.)
Measures of Distance (Mona Hatoum, GB 1988, 15 Min.)
Delirium (Mindy Faber, US 1993, 23 Min.)

Program 11 BODIES OF SOCIETY 
Bodies of Society (Klara Liden, SE 2006, 5 Min.)
Double Bubble (Maa Bajevic, BA 2001, 5 Min.)
After Desaster (Lida Abdul, AF 1999-2001, 2 Min.)
Image of Happiness (Marina Abramovic, RS/NL 1996, 24 Min.)
In Transit (Lida Abdul, AF/AT 2008, 5 Min.)
Undressing (Nilbar Güres, TR/AT 2006, 6 Min.)
Saute Ma Ville (Chantal Akerman, BE 1968, 15 Min.)

Program 12 HERSTORY
A Portrait of the Artist as a Worker (RMX.) (Ina Wudtke, DE 2000, 11 Min.)
Art Herstory (Hermine Freed, US 1974, 22 Min.)
Chillida (Forms & Feelings) (Falke Pisano, NL 2006, 14 Min.)
The Fancy (Elisabeth Subrin, US 2000, 36 Min.)

Program 13 THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS 
The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins (Pietra Brettkelly, NZ 2008, 98 Min.)

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