INCCA members Pip Laurenson and Vivian van Saaze contributed a chapter in the book Performativity in the Gallery on Collecting Performance-Based Art.
Laurenson, P. and Saaze, V. van (2014). Collecting Performance-based Art: New Challenges and Shifting Perspectives. In: O. Remes (etal.) Performativity in the Gallery: Staging Interactive Encounters. Peter Lang, pp. 27-41.
This chapter is informed by research conducted as part of the network Collecting the Performative: A Research Network Examining Emerging Practice for Collecting and Conserving Performance-based Art (2012–13). This interdisciplinary network draws on a range of practitioners, academics, artists and professionals to examine emerging models for the conservation and documentation of artists’ performance, drawing upon the practices of dance, theatre and activism in order to identify parallels in the concept of a work and related notions of authorship, authenticity, autonomy, documentation, memory, continuity and liveness. It examines the conceptual and practical challenges related to collecting and conserving artists’ performance.
This book Performity in the Gallery: Staging Interactive Encounters (2014) coincides with an increase in the programming of live art elements in many galleries and museums. Traditional art history has, however, been wary of live art’s interdisciplinarity and its tendency to encourage increased formal and conceptual risk taking. Time-based performances have challenged the conventions of documentation and the viewer’s access to the art experience. This book questions the canon of art history by exploring participation, liveness, interactivity, digital and process-based performative practices and performance for the camera, as presented in gallery spaces. The essays present both academic research as well as case studies of curatorial projects that have pushed the boundaries of the art historical practice.