The Julia Stoschek Foundation in Berlin presents 35 artists whose works from the 1960s to the present explore the intersections of performance and video.
Fig. above: Pipilotti Rist, (Entlastungen) Pipilotti’s Mistakes, 1988, video, 11′10″, colour, sound. Video still. Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
The group exhibition “Unbound: Performance as Rupture” is dedicated to the question of how artists at different times have dealt with the body in relation to the camera, rejecting ideologies of oppression, breaking through historical narratives or shaking up notions of identity. The exhibition, which brings works from the Julia Stoschek Collection into dialogue with loans, traces various intersections of performance and video art from the 1960s to the present, paying particular attention to forms of rupture, break and pause.
In contrast to Peggy Phelan’s definition of performance as a live art form characterised by its instantaneous disappearance, “Unbound” focuses on the use of the camera and its apparatus for the purpose of recording and as an influencing element of the performance itself. Through a deliberate fusion of the presence of the performance with the virtuality of the image, the artists on show question a fundamental paradox – a representational gap, if you will, that opens up between the performing subject, whose complex identity can never be fully represented, and the camera as a violent tool that attempts to capture, contain and classify the sitters. Many of the works presented show and negotiate a colonial gaze perpetuated by the camera, yet at the same time rely on precisely this time-based technology to establish connections across space and time that would be impossible without it. Alongside performance documentaries and performances for the camera, more recent works in the exhibition explore contemporary image economies and focus, among other things, on how bodies move through physical and digital spaces.
In the mid-20th century, the emergence of performance art introduced a rupture into the Western understanding of art thanks to its blurring of the boundaries between art object, artist and action. The accompanying liberation of art through the body (and vice versa) is found as a common drive behind the different approaches of the works on display. Around the same time, fledgling video technology shaped a decisive shift in the way we record, edit, play and present movement – a shift that connects early video experiments with our contemporary use in social media and beyond. Considering the relevant histories, a dialogue develops between historical works by Eleanor Antin, Peter Campus, VALIE EXPORT, Sanja Iveković, Ulysses Jenkins, Joan Jonas, Lutz Mommartz, Senga Nengudi, Howardena Pindell, Pope. L and Katharina Sieverding and works by a younger generation of women artists including Panteha Abareshi, Ufuoma Essi, Shuruq Harb, Tarek Lakhrissi, mandla & Graham ClaytonChance, Lydia Ourahmane, Sondra Perry, Akeem Smith and P.Staff.
Unbound: Performance as Rupture will be accompanied by a publication with a general introduction and short texts relating the individual artworks to the themes of the exhibition (free of charge when visiting the exhibition). In addition, a public talk and screening programme as well as a podcast will further illuminate and complement the ideas of the exhibition.
Curator: Lisa Long, Assistant Curator: Line Ajan
Artists: Panteha Abareshi, Eleanor Antin, Salim Bayri, Nao Bustamante, Matt Calderwood, Peter Campus, Patty Chang, Julien Creuzet, Vaginal Davis, Ufuoma Essi, VALIE EXPORT, Cao Guimarães, Shuruq Harb, Sanja Iveković, Ulysses Jenkins, Joan Jonas, Stanya Kahn, Tarek Lakhrissi, Klara Lidén, mandla & Graham Clayton-Chance, Lutz Mommartz, Senga Nengudi, Mame-Diarra Niang, Lydia Ourahmane, Christelle Oyiri, P.Staff, Manfred Pernice, Sondra Perry, Howardena Pindell, Pope.L, Pipilotti Rist, Katharina Sieverding, Akeem Smith, Gwenn Thomas
WHERE?
Julia Stoschek Foundation
Leipziger Strasse 60
10117 Berlin
WHEN?
Opening: Wednesday, 13 September, 6 – 10 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 14 September 2023 – 28 July 2024
Saturday and Sunday, 12 – 18 h
Special opening hours Berlin Art Week:
13 September, 6–10 p.m., 14–17 September, 12–18 p.m.
German-language guided tour: Sunday, 3 p.m.
English-language guided tour: Saturday, 3 p.m.
COSTS? Admission 5 Euro, Registration at www.jsfoundation.art
