He Libin: One day in August 2022, I received a phone call from Mr. Zhou Bin, inviting me to Chengdu to do a sharing session on “Warming Up – Yunnan Performance Art Archives” and a performance art workshop at the same time, which I gladly agreed to do, but due to the epidemic control, the sharing session was changed to a web conference and the workshop date was postponed several times. Later, due to the epidemic control, the sharing session was changed to a network meeting, and the date of the workshop was postponed several times. It was not until after the Spring Festival this year that Mr. Zhou Bin and I met again and finally set a date for the workshop.
This is the eighth workshop I’ve done in collaboration with an art organization. In the previous workshops, the theoretical lectures and the performance exercises of the participants each took up half of the workshop, but this time I’ve made some major adjustments: the theoretical part of the workshop is only an introduction to the brief history of performance art, and a lot of time is spent on the performance exercises of the participants, and the discussion involving the language of performance is combined with the specific works of the participants in the exercises.
Performance art is really about creating an event, which can be very tiny, very small, very trivial, very everyday, and it all holds true, simplifying thoughts, seizing a thought whether it’s expanding or focusing, and then following that thought.
Keywords: Dada Zurich Bistro, Falling into the Void, Situationism International, Surge, Performance, Black Market International, Art Encounters, Relational Aesthetics, International Performance Art Festival Performance art is a physical action that takes the individual body and mind as the core focus, uses the body as the main medium of expression, and unfolds at a specific time and field, and expresses the creator’s concepts and emotions.
● The transcendent, ritualistic behaviors of ancient humans that unfolded during celebrations, rituals, and other events have a spiritual connection to the performance art that emerged in the 1960s.
● From 1916 to 1623, Dadaist artists often performed improvisations in the taverns of Zurich, Switzerland, and the emergence of performance art in the 1960s has spiritual echoes of the improvisations of the Dadaists.
The Situationist International, active in Europe from 1957 to 1972, represented by Guy Debord, advocated a revolution in everyday life to replace the landscape society created by increasingly advanced capitalism. Walking on the street and occasional actions are common expressions of the Situationist International.
● In 1961, French artist Yves Klein’s “Falling into the Void” is considered to be the first work of performance art.
● The Radicals, active in Paris and New York in the 1960s, were influenced by Eastern Zen thought and created many imaginative behavioral directives (performance work programs). They frequently performed in galleries, art museums, bars, and other public venues, and regularly edited their behavioral instructions into a publication, which was mailed to artists around the world, and became a text of behavioral guidelines shared by artists. Representative artists: John Cage, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Maisunas, and Boyce.
● In the 1980s, German performance artists such as Boris Nesloni and others initiated Black Market International, which often performs collective improvisation in galleries, churches, and city squares, and before they start the improvisation, they make in-depth inspections and preparations for the performance venues, which they call “rehearsal improvisation”. They call such performances “rehearsal improvisation”.
● Encounter Art, initiated by Black Market International, invites artists to travel long distances, meet in various cities, and perform at various venues in the cities, making performance art an important form of meeting and getting together for artists.
● In 1995, French scholar Nicolas Berreaud put forward the theory of “relational aesthetics” and published a book of the same name in 1998, in which he pointed out the important change in the relationship between art production and viewing after the 1990s, from a unidirectional relationship between presentation and viewing to a multidirectional, co-temporal, and symbiotic relationship. In his book, he pointed out the important change in the relationship between art production and viewing after the 1990s, from a unidirectional relationship between presentation and viewing to a multi-directional, co-temporal, and symbiotic relationship, which is different from the static exhibitions of the art museum system in the past, and a new relational context has been generated by the meetings, conferences, festivals, parades, games, and events at ……. The above concepts have had a profound impact on the ecology of performance art, and many curators of performance art festivals have been influenced by their viewpoints. The performance art festivals that sprang up around the world after the 1990s are an in-depth practice of relational aesthetics, in which artists from different countries and fields come together to meet, discuss, walk, perform… …Art has become a celebration that goes beyond the everyday, where people share different cultural memories and aesthetic experiences, practicing the expression of multiple relationships between people and people, people and nature, people and cities, and people and history in the form of on-site art, constantly expanding the boundaries of art.
Instruction: Performance with Ping Pong Balls
“The ping pong ball is elastic and dotted, which is suitable for practicing its interaction with the body. Although it is an exercise, we hope that the participants will present each exercise as an independent work.” Considering that the participants of the first day’s workshop were a bit unfamiliar and constrained with each other, the exercises in this section included independent performances, duo performances, and group improvisations for all of them, hoping to build up an intimate relationship of mutual trust and tacit understanding as the participants worked together. In the independent performance section, participants who have experience in creating performance art show good physical condition, while participants who are new to performance art like to set up complex structures, and the performance process is trivial and not coherent enough.
In the double performance section, the participants did not have a good understanding of each other, resulting in a situation in which they performed their own acts even though they were on the stage at the same time. In the group improvisation, there were a few impressive participants who got into the mood very quickly and were very focused throughout the performance. Some of the students had too many thoughts and were often in a state of wandering.
Keywords: relational
performance art is an expression of immediacy based on relationships. The performer needs to establish an intimate relationship with the materials used in the performance, and the performer is connected to the materials as a part of the performer’s body. In the preparatory stage before the performance practice begins, the performer’s touching and listening to the materials and sitting quietly in meditation are necessary means for the performer to empty his body and mind and remove distractions.
Keywords: performing
Participants who are new to performance art tend to interpret performance as a theatrical performance, presenting what he/she wants to express through exaggerated physical performances. We need to make a distinction between the definitions of “performance” in theater performance and performance in behavioral performance. In theater performance, the performer simulates reality with the help of acting skills to achieve the purpose of narrative. In behavioral performance, the performer unfolds the event through physical action, and the performance is unique and unrepeatable. On the other hand, the scene of behavioral art is called behavioral performance because it has complete theatrical elements such as stage (permanent or temporary), performers, audience, time, and so on, which constitutes the situation of performing and watching.
Keywords: a thought
Excessive thoughts and mental laxity are the conditions that tend to occur in the first contact with performance art. At this time, we need to guide the students to feel the body and open the awareness system by relaxing the body and mind exercises. Behavioral art is not to illustrate concepts through actions, but to merge the body and thoughts into one, to naturally unfold a period of physical action in a specific time and space, just like writing a poem with physical action. The difference between the former and the latter is that one is a reproduction and the other is a presentation.
Instruction: Using chopsticks as a material for a performance
“Chopsticks are one of the longest-used tools in China, and their intimate relationship with the hand creates an indelible muscle memory. In this unit, we hope that participants will transcend their original perceptions of chopsticks and explore their wider possibilities through behavioral performances, especially considering them as a basic element in the shape of a line, linking it to the body, and unfolding the possibilities of reimagining it in space.” The morning session took place on the rooftop rooftop of the Archives, and the participants were all much more relaxed than on the first day, with the work presented more fully. The first round of exercises unfolded around a table where everyone was seated, and many of the participants tended to be more subtle in their performance limbs, as well as interactive and playful, and generally more relaxed.
In the second round, the performance area was expanded to include the entire rooftop, with participants choosing to perform underneath the trellis and in front of the graffiti wall. The third round of group improvisation took place in the archive room. Compared to the first day’s group improvisation, the second day was more complete, with the whole group improvisation being presented as an independent and complete work, forming a relationship between the beginning and the end. The beginning and middle of the 50-minute performance was well-paced, with participants hitting chopsticks to create rhythmic sounds, as well as chanting, creating pulls and links between each other, allowing the individual performances to relate to each other, creating a journey of relationships that continue to derive and change.
Keywords: field use In behavioral performance, the full understanding and reasonable use of the field is also the key to the success of the performance. Before going on stage, participants need to fully assess their own physical energy and the suitable field to unfold, and whether or not they can control the field during the performance determines the success or failure of the performance. The performer can define the performance area and the viewing area according to the needs of the work.
Keywords: Interaction between performer and audience in interactive performance is the most fascinating part of the relational aesthetics of performance. Performers need to fully assess the process of interaction, set up a diversified and open structure, give up their obsessions, act according to the situation, blur the roles of the performer and the audience, and complete the relational journey in the process of free transformation.
Instruction: Performance using A4 paper as a material
“The basic form of paper corresponds to the surface of the modeling element, but paper is also flexible and malleable. In this unit, participants are expected to explore the possibilities of paper and develop multi-dimensional expressions.”
The morning exercise was a stand-alone performance in an archive room, where the participants were mostly immersed in nuanced emotions. The scene was quiet and solemn. The afternoon exercise unfolded in the subway, street, vegetable market, and community garden, where the instructor and the participants completed multiple field transitions in improvisational and playful situations.
Keywords: micro-context
Micro-context refers to the performer’s delineation of a tiny field to unfold the expression of subtle emotions, the performer needs to be very focused, and every tiny movement in the process will be magnified by the audience. The slightest distraction of the performer will also be seen by the audience, thus collapsing the whole field.
Keywords: Contextual SculptureThe materials formed during the performer’s performance form sculpture-like forms, but unlike sculpture, these forms are semantically tied to the behavioral events that occur in a particular field, and if their relevance is removed, the materials are merely remnants of the behavioral events.
Keywords: rhythm
In micro-contextual performances, the performer fully mobilizes the body’s potential to create natural rhythms and variations that make the performance suspenseful and exciting. On the contrary, a distracted performance will put the audience to sleep.
Keywords: energy field The process of performing a piece of behavior is the process of energy convergence. The performer, the audience, and the space are all elements of energy convergence, and when all the elements coalesce at a single point, they form a co-temporal and symbiotic relationship, forming a full energy field.
Keywords: situational improvisation in the subway, market, streets, squares and other crowded venues, mixed information, suitable for the development of collective, flash improvisation, the performers do not need to focus on the integrity of the language, but rather in the playful process of shaping a moment of surprise, the formation of rounds and rounds of novelty experience.
Keywords: blind walking The last chapter of the exercise was conducted under a 6 square meter rain shelter in a small garden downstairs in the community, where the instructor and the participants collectively walked blindly under the shelter, listening to the sounds around them, and following their intuition to swing and walk freely. Bodies touched, snuggled, embraced, pulled, pushed, squeezed …… During the 50-minute blind walk, the gathering and dispersing of bodies formed an ever-changing relational journey, and the trust of bodies in each other merged into a more powerful energy field.
Mr. He Libin:
“This workshop unfolded in Chengdu UP-ON Upward Performance Art Archive is the most effective one among the 8 workshops I have worked with different organizations, summarized for three reasons: first, the organizer’s thorough preparation; second, I adjusted the course methodology based on the experience of the previous 7 workshops, advocating a concise and simple approach to open up the body with multi-scene exercises to build up a trust in the The third is the full enthusiasm of the participants, among the 8 participants, 1 is from Xi’an, 4 from Chongqing and 3 from Chengdu. Participants put great enthusiasm in a relatively short period of time and built deep friendship with each other.
We hope that they will link up more closely with each other in the future, inspire each other and make each other’s achievements, and write a more wonderful journey of performance art. Thank you to workshop initiator Mr. Zhou Bin, facilitator Ms. He Ruoxi, assistant teacher Ms. Li Yao Yao, site observation Ms. Dong Jie, Mr. Wang Yan Xin, and all the workshop participants, the time we spent with you was fulfilling and joyful, and the chapter of performance art is more exciting because we met!”
