Image by Leon JL, sourced on Unsplash.

What inspired you to write Performance in the Museum? Was there a particular gap in scholarship or curatorial practice you wanted to address?

The idea of the book came from a new lecture for the MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. I wanted to explore performance from a curatorial perspective and examine how it has been included in exhibitions. As I undertook research, I was surprised to find how little was written on this topic. It became so fascinating that my lecture notes evolved into a book project!

Can you describe the research process for the book?

I began by analyzing past exhibitions on performance. I consulted books and exhibition catalogues in libraries, and curators and artists’ notes, letters, floor plans and sketches, and dozens of contact sheets in archives. From a museum’s perspective, performance encompasses live works but also their repetitions and reinterpretations, and objects such as remnants and replicas. A pivotal moment of my thought process was when I realized that the museum’s approach to performance is influenced not just by its display imperatives but also by other missions which are conservation, acquisition, and research. This understanding shaped the chapter structure of the book.

What are some of the key moments or exhibitions that you feel were instrumental in the integration of performance into the museum space?

The museum faced challenges posed by performance throughout the past 60 years, but these challenges were felt at various degrees of urgency at different periods. The compatibility of performance with the museum was a central issue in the 1960s and 1970s, along with how to incorporate it in exhibitions. In the 1980s and 1990s, the focus shifted to the afterlife of historical performance, a period characterized by the proliferation of replicas and later re-enactments (notably Marina Abramović’s Seven Easy Pieces in 2005). Around 2000, museums realized performance was underrepresented in their collections and began developing forms of acquisitions such as live works and ensembles. Each of these stages marked turning points in integrating performance into the museum.

What were some of the most surprising or challenging aspects of compiling this history?

I consulted curators, conservators, registrars and artists, and I was astonished by the complexity of behind-the-scenes processes involved in dealing with performance. A particularly intriguing aspect of my research was examining acquisition files of live works to gain insights into the process of collecting performance as an immaterial work. For example, it was fascinating to observe the intricate instructions given by Roman Ondak for the display of a seemingly simple work consisting in people queuing in a museum without clear reason.

I was also surprised by the prolific nature of an ephemeral art such as performance, which can leave behind multiple material traces. For instance, VALIE EXPORT performed TAPP und TASTKINO in Vienna wearing a Styrofoam box around her bare chest, and again in Munich wearing one made of aluminium; both boxes were lost or destroyed but later reconstructed for different exhibitions. These replicas are now part of one large ensemble created on the occasion of an acquisition, accompanied by documents and a video.

Performance art originally emerged as an anti-institutional practice. How do you think the integration of performance into museum spaces has affected its original ethos?

As a medium that is partly or entirely ephemeral, performance has often been seen as intrinsically unadaptable to the market and the museum. While it is true that some artists have defined their practice of performance against the institution, the situation has been far more complex.

In the 1960s, pioneers such as Allan Kaprow and Hélio Oiticica made inflammatory statements about the dangers of institutional embrace, yet they did not entirely shun museums. The relationship between performance and museums has often been a cat and mouse game! From the outset artists have forced their way into museums with unauthorized performances, for example Yayoi Kusama in New York and Antonio Manuel in Rio de Janeiro.

Conversely, galleries and museums have seized the opportunity to showcase their bold and leading-edge programs with live works. With the advent of Conceptual Art in the 1970s, artists such as Vito Acconci accepted invitations to museums, only to disrupt their rules and order. Today, live works are commonly conceived for gallery settings, and museums have dedicated programs, spaces, and staff to support them. Moreover, museums often possess substantial resources to facilitate the creation of performance works and to protect them over time.

Do you believe there are limitations to how museums can present or conserve performance art? If so, how should curators approach these challenges?

The conservation of performance faces many limitations. The key is that any conservation project must remain true to the work, even though this principle is complicated by the fact that the notion of the original tends to crumble with performance. Key to performance is that conservation does not just consider the material authenticity of a work but also its conceptual authenticity. To address challenges which are technical and curatorial as well as logistical and financial, it is crucial that artists, curators, and conservators collaborate.

What do you hope readers will take away from Performance in the Museum?

My book is a history of performance from the museum’s perspective, as well as a history of the museum from the perspective of performance. I identify crucial chronological developments and moments of crisis up to the present day. I also show that performance works have their own resources to problematize their relation with the institution, for example when Marta Minujín set her sculptures on fire, Chris Burden lived and worked in an exhibition space as if it were home, or Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmuş created an ‘immaterial collection’. I hope readers understand that performance and the museum have had a long and complex relationship, however stormy or complicated it may be.

As Senior Lecturer for the MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute, how does your experience as a researcher and author shape your approach to teaching?

During my research, I closely look at multiple interactions between artists, curators, critics, ideas, institutions, and various contexts. This holistic approach inevitably influences my teaching. While it is essential for me to place the artwork at the center of a talk or a conversation, I believe it is equally important to consider the ecosystem in which art is created, displayed, and discussed.