New Formats, Places, and Practices of Performance-Related Art
How Are We Performing Today? examines the shifting conditions and rising popularity of performance-related art, and its evolving-and frequently ambivalent-relationship to the museum. Drawing on the double meaning of "performance" as both a live element in the arts and a benchmark for economic productivity, the conference seeks to understand the character and consequences of new performance formats and strategies used by artists, curators, and institutions. Moreover, it explores how performance is tied to the experience economy-in which memory itself is a product-and how it is framed institutionally. The program of prominent scholars, artists, and curators addresses questions including: Where and under what conditions does performance art emerge today? How can artists and institutions address performance's migration from the margin to the center of contemporary art discourse? What kinds of transformations or conditions might be necessary to create a meaningful or critically engaged performance art program within the museum? Through this conference, MoMA's Department of Media and Performance Art seeks to deepen its engagement with the theory and practice of performance-related art-reflecting on the medium's changing parameters, modes of production, and presentation. November 16 Introduction Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA Keynote Address Judith Butler, Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature and Co-director of the Program of Critical Theory, University of California, Berkeley Shannon Jackson, Professor in the Arts and Humanities, University of California, Berkeley Moderator: Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA. Session 1: The Places of Performance Rachel Haidu, Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester, Andrea Fraser, Artist, Professor for New Genres, University of California, Los Angeles, Moderator: Johanna Burton, Director, graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. November 17, Session 2: New Formats, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Director, CAC Bretigny, Paris, France, Boris Charmatz, Director, Rennes and Brittany National Choreographic Centre (Musee de la Danse) Tim Griffin, Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Kitchen, New York Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator, Hayward Gallery, London, Moderator: Ana Janevski, Associate Curator of Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA. Session 3: New Artistic Practices, Film screening: Grand Openings. Return of the Blogs, by Loretta Fahrenholz, Jutta Koether, artist, writer, and Professor, Hochschule fur bildende Kunste (HfbK), Hamburg Jay Sanders, Curator of Performance, The Whitney Museum of the American Art, New York Simon Leung, artist and Professor of Art, University of California, Irvine Emily Roysdon, artist and writer Moderator: Claire Bishop, Associate Professor in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, New York. Archival Case Studies, Jonathan Lill, Project Archivist, MoMA, Michelle Elligott, Archivist, MoMA, David Senior, Bibliographer, MoMA.