La «performance»: de les accions inicials als multimèdia

Abstract

This text deals with a wide view, from the first gestures made by such artists as Marcel Duchamp, Piero Manzoni or Yves Klein till the performance of the end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties, entirely multimedia. Through that period, the incidence of FLUXUS and the happenings was very important for the consolidation of the performance of the end of that decade.

Conceptual art and one of its branches, body art, allowed the artist to think of himself as his own work of art. His body became another element of his artistic practice. Such names as Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, Arnulf Rainer and Klaus Rinke, among others, are exemples of it. Groups similar to the Viennese actionims appeared simultaneously. They, together with such artists as Gina Pane, Chris Burden, etc., devoted themselves to the search for physical limits.

The trip to introspection of Marina Abramovic and Ulay and the transformism of Urs Liithi, Manon, etc., were other possible trends together with the diverse use of such means as video, music, dance, theatre, etc. From that conjoction of interests was born the multimedia performance of the eighties, considered to be a possible «total work of art».