Friday, April 30, 2004
Question: ”Excuse me, can you define performance art?”
Answers:
* “A bunch of weirdoes who love to get naked and scream about leftist politics.” (Yuppie in a bar)
* “Performance artists are…bad actors.”(A “good” actor)
* “You mean, those decadent and elitist liberals who hide behind the art thing to beg for government money?” (Politician)
* “It’s…just…very, very cool stuff. Makes you… think and shit.” (My nephew)
* "Performance is both the antithesis of and the antidote to high culture." (Performance Artist)
* “I’ll answer you with a joke: What do you get when you mix a comedian with a performance artist?…A joke that no one understands” (A friend)
Gomez-Pena writes:
"My job as a performance artist may be to open up a temporary utopian/dystopian space, a "de-militarized zone" in which meaningful “radical” behavior and progressive thought are allowed to take place, even if only for the duration of the performance. In this imaginary zone, both artist and audience members are given permission to assume multiple and ever-changing positionalities and identities. In this border zone, the distance between “us” and “them,” self and other, art and life, becomes blurry and unspecific."
