Margaret Dragu's reply to our project: What is performance art and Timeline of performance art

Margaret Dragu, 2012-01-18

I think Performance Art might be a troublesome combination of the amateur with artfulness.

What is performance art

Several years ago, I read In New Yorker magazine a description of performance artists as "smart people who cannot really do anything". I quite like that.

Performance has a disputed history and area of practice for at least 3 reasons.

Because the anarchic/anti-everything element is (naturally) enraged when ANY defining occurs as it smacks of institutionalism.

Because we are (slightly) more global and therefore even the Akademe (a default history deposit) is less likely to trot out a Eurocentric Story of "once upon a time there were the Futurists, the Dadaists, the Situationists, the Aktionists, the Fluxists, etc..."

Because Performance Art is historically the refuge for immigrants and refugees of other disciplines - a safer haven for artists/workers booted out the back door of painting, theatre and various widget-making. Disenfranchised artists wash up on the shores of performance but they bring traces of their original practices with them.

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Timeline of performance art

Margaret Dragu made her first performance in 1971 in New York City.

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