Souffleur, what is the meaning of 'Performance'?

Lore Boon, assistant curator contemporary art: “It’s not easy to explain what ‘performance’ means exactly. Performance art is multi-disciplinary: it can be anything. But it is precisely that unpredictability that makes it so beautiful.”

“All performances have one thing in common: they are somehow live. Usually, they take place in a public space, on stage or in a museum. Or a combination of these: then the white cube of the museum, for example, overlaps with the black box of the theatre. Sometimes they are announced, sometimes they are not. Sometimes they start from a scenario that has been worked out in advance, sometimes they give way to chance and interaction with the audience. They often start with an everyday act but present it in a confronting or shocking way.”

“Because performances are live, they are by definition transient. There is sometimes a recording or registration of them, but that is not the actual work of art.”

“The term ‘performance art’ became established in the 1970s but has its roots in Futurism and the absurd dada cabarets of the 1910s. In the meantime, it has become a catch-all term, a label that fits many containers: happenings, events, actions, body art, conceptual art … Well-known names include Joseph Beuys, Gilbert & George, Marina Abramovic or, more recently, Tino Seghal and Guy de Cointet. But performance art is not a defined movement; it is more a set of tools, of means for doing art in a multi-disciplinary way.”