From Dada to Gaga

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Movie
Original title From Dada to Gaga - 100 years of performance art
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2015
length 3 × 45 minutes
Rod
Director Thomas von Steinaecker
script Thomas von Steinaecker
production Norbert Busè , Christof Debler , Nora Gielke
camera René Gorski
occupation

Marina Abramovic , Laurie Anderson , Matthew Barney , John Bock , Bazon Brock , Rainald Grebe , Blixa Bargeld , Günter Brus , Hermann Nitsch , Valie Export , Else Gabriel , Cornelia Schleime , RoseLee Goldberg , Greil Marcus , Gob Squad , Mieke Matzke , Philipp Ruch , Ulrike Rosenbach , Robert Wilson , Yoko Ono , Adrian Notz and Juri Steiner

From Dada to Gaga - 100 Years of Performance Art is a three-part documentary film series by Thomas von Steinaecker , produced by Studio.TV.Film on behalf of ZDF for 3sat , which will take place on November 28, December 5 and December 12, 2015 at 10:45 p.m. on 3sat for the first time.

action

The three 45-minute episodes deal with the history of performance art from its beginnings to the present. On the occasion of its 100-year history, performance art is being dealt with in a documentary film format for the first time. The exciting journey of this idiosyncratic and sometimes radical art form is told through interviews with artists such as Marina Abramovic , Laurie Anderson , Matthew Barney , John Bock , Bazon Brock , Rainald Grebe , Blixa Bargeld , the Viennese actionists Günter Brus , Hermann Nitsch and Valie Export , the East German artists Else Gabriel and Cornelia Schleime , the authors RoseLee Goldberg and Greil Marcus and performance artists and theater makers such as Gob Squad , Mieke Matzke , Philipp Ruch , Ulrike Rosenbach , Robert Wilson , Yoko Ono and the Dada experts Adrian Notz and Yuri Steiner.

Everyone is an artist

The first part of the series deals with the beginnings of performance art in the Dada movement. A re-enactment of the very first performance that Hugo Ball staged in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich illustrates the anarchic attitude towards art with which the Dadaists fascinated their audiences. Hugo Ball recites a phonetic poem with the title “Caravan” and is forced into a cubist cardboard costume that is reminiscent of a bishop's robe. Thomas von Steinaecker leads the viewer into today's Zurich Cabaret Voltaire, which is still reminiscent of Dada and the beginnings of performance art. After a brief excursion to the Surrealists in Paris, the first part of the series tells of the beginnings of performance art in the USA , where a group of visionary artists come together at Black Mountain College in Black Mountain (North Carolina) . Among them is the composer John Cage , who plays a key role in the development of performance art. His unusual appearances are part of action art, as Jackson Pollock was doing in painting at the time . Back in Germany, the Fluxus movement excites the art world. Nam June Paik , Charlotte Moorman and, last but not least, Joseph Beuys , who created a milestone in performance art with “How to explain pictures to the dead rabbit”, are presented through rare archive recordings. “Everyone is an artist” ends with the Viennese Actionism of the 1960s, which is the focus of the second part of the series.

Art and revolution

At the end of the 1960s, a group of artists around the young Günter Brus in Vienna demonstrated how political performance art can be . They storm lecture hall 1 of the new institute building of the Vienna University and perform what the Austrian newspaper Kronenzeitung later called the "Uniferkelei". Günter Brus is sentenced to a six-month prison term and then turns his back on his hometown Vienna to go into exile in Berlin. In the time of student revolts and the rise of feminism, there is also a decisive change in performance art. Artists like Valie Export shock prudish Austrian society with the legendary “Tapp- und Tastkino” or the “Genital Panic” quoted by Marina Abramovic in her performance “Seven Easy Pieces”. Yoko Ono sets standards with performances like "Cut Piece" and "Freedom". In "Freedom" she tries in vain to tear off a brassiere and thus illustrates the lack of freedom of women in modern society. She and John Lennon are also protesting against the war in Vietnam with their “Bed In”. The Serbian artist Marina Abramovic caused a sensation for the first time at the 47th Venice Biennale with her performance "Balkan Baroque", which thematized the war in the former Yugoslavia and won the 1997 Golden Lion. Abramovic - initially in collaboration with Ulay - becomes the leading figure of an art form that is now dominated by women and has been the theme of war since the 1960s. Last but not least, artists like Chris Burden from the USA give a taste of how war feels physically. In his performance “Shoot” (1971), which the film shows in a photo series, he really lets himself be shot - a clear statement against the Vietnam War . Von Steinaecker tells how performance art becomes a means of expression for political protest and an outlet for charged social conditions. In the GDR in the 1980s, too, women artists in particular found expression in performance and video art for their situation, which was characterized by repression and professional bans. The popularity of performance art is also making its way to the MTV music video and is making its way into pop culture worldwide.

The artist is present

The third part of the documentary film series “From Dada to Gaga” focuses on the influence of performance art on the media, especially video art, as practiced, for example, by the artists Vito Acconci and Ulrike Rosenbach . The music broadcaster MTV shows music videos influenced by performance art by pop icons such as Laurie Anderson and Annie Lennox ( Eurythmics ). Von Steinaecker sheds light on the influence of performance art on pop culture and television. Formats like Big Brother dissolve the border between the live experience and the artificial world of staging. The action artist Christoph Schlingensief not only plays with different television formats (“U 3000”), but also stages himself in political and religious contexts, for example by founding a party. Excerpts from the opus "River of Fundament" show the work of Matthew Barney . Von Steinaecker draws the arc from the history of performance art to today's everyday culture, in which flash mobs fill entire shopping centers and the “ Center for Political Beauty ” with “Die Totenommen” turns the ritual act of burial into a political event.

The series From Dada to Gaga - 100 Years of Performance Art gives a comprehensive overview of the development of performance art .

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