In 1959, Piero Manzoni signed women’s bodies and called them ‘Living Sculptures’. In 1974, Joseph Beuys, the ‘shaman’ of art, closed himself in a cell for three days with a coyote, a symbol of the United States, and tried to communicate with it. In 1989, James Lee Byars, wearing a golden outfit, burnt a circle of shrubs, symbolic of his incendiary creative power. In 1997, Marina Abramović cleaned hundreds of animal bones while singing sad songs to remember the Balkan War. All these are examples of artistic performances. They seem strange, but with this new art form the work doesn’t even exist. The artist-performer no longer wants to create a concrete and tangible object such as a painting, a sculpture, a video. Instead, the work is his action, which takes place at a very precise moment and in a determined space. This is just as important as the interaction with the viewer, or should we say the spectator. His or her presence is fundamental because without the viewer, the performance would have no meaning.
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In 1959, Piero Manzoni signed women’s bodies and called them ‘Living Sculptures’. In 1974, Joseph Beuys, the ‘shaman’ of art, closed himself in a cell for three days with a coyote, a symbol of the United States, and tried to communicate with it. In 1989, James Lee Byars, wearing a golden outfit, burnt a circle of shrubs, symbolic of his incendiary creative power. In 1997, Marina... continue...
