Performance art in the West has developed in part as a response
to the commercialization of the art object. But what are the roots
of performance art in Eastern Europe and Russia, where there was no
real art market to speak of? While Western performance artists of
the late 20th century aimed to create works that could not be
bought or sold, performances in the communist bloc in the absence
of an art market, more often took the form of social critique.
Instead of creations that questioned what the art object is, their
work often related to local issues within the context of late- or
post-socialism. By placing these performances both within a local
and international context, this book pinpoints the nuances between
performance art East and West.
Post-Socialist performance art in Russia, Poland, and Latvia is
examined for the first time as agent and chronicle of the
transition from Soviet states to free-market democracies. Drawing
upon previously unpublished sources and exclusive interviews with
the artists themselves, Amy Bryzgel explores the spontaneous
theater of the period from Oleg Kulik's Russian Dog performances to
Miervaldis Polis's The Bronze Man and Vladislav Mayhshev's Monroe.
Bryzgel demonstrates that performativity in Eastern Europe went
beyond the modernist critique to express ideas outside the official
discourse, shocking and empowering the citizenry in the truest
avant-garde tradition. Performing the East open the way to an
urgent reassessment of the history, function, and influence of
performance art.
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