PERFORMANCE ART – PASTAND PRESENTPART II

PERFORMANCE ART – PAST AND PRESENT PART II

The case of performance art is deeply embedded in social action and social interest. It is a call for collective action that is both interactive and participatory. The participatory nature of performative practices is set with a precondition that is activation of the body.

Rummana Husain, Living on the Margins, NCPA, Mumbai, 1995

The 90’s was a politically, socially and culturally stressful period in India that witnessed violent communal events. This period was the reason for the drastic shift in artistic practices of artists like Rummana Husain. She could be very well considered as one of the foremost artists to begin the path of conceptual and performative art in India. ‘Living on the Margins’ was Husain’s first performance work that was executed at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai in 1995. It was Husain’s response to the politically tense and violent environment in the country and her encounter with death because of the spread of diseases like AIDS and her diagnosis with breast cancer. In her 1998 performance, ‘Is it what you think?’, Husain’s voice echoed confronting her identity as a woman and as an artist that focused on her gender and religious identity and her confrontation with death.

Tushar Joag, Riding Rocinante: from Bombay to Shanghai via Sardar Sarovar and the Three Gorges, maps, motorcycle spare parts and tools; The Realisation of Kanthaka; sculptural installation part of West Heavens Project, Shanghai, 2010

Tushar Joag’s critical analysis of the socio-political and cultural happenings within the country and his sensitive and empathetic approach brought a major shift in performance and participatory practices in India. A firm believer of art as a tool for social and political change, his works are propositions that aestheticized politics. His works are witty, politically conscious and self reflexive. His practice mobilized and created a discourse about the identity – ‘artist citizen’. Joag’s 2010 performative work, ‘Riding Rocinante: from Bombay to Shanghai’ was a motorcycle journey through Sardar Sarovar in India to Three Gorges in China. His journey has references to the journey of Prince Siddharth Gautama on his horse Kanthaka that changed his perspective towards life, the long journey of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara around Latin America on his motorcycle. His performances were about endurance. Joag’s 2011 work ‘Right to Dissent’, curated by him in collaboration with Mumbai based Clark House Initiative and Mohile Parikh Centre was a response to the arrest of public health specialist and human rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen, in which he spent six days in a confined space, repeatedly writing “I will not lose faith in the Indian Judiciary and Democracy.”

Tania Bruguera, Tatlin’s Whisper #6, Havana, 2008

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s practice encompasses politically motivated performances, events and community projects. Her work navigates between art, activism and social change. Over the years her work has stretched the scope of performance art. Bruguera has addressed the promise and failings of Cuban revolution through her performances. ‘Tatlin’s Whisper #6’ is a 2009 performance that was part of the Havana Biennale. The performance provided a platform for the free speech that is normally denied in Cuba. The audience were invited to the stage and spoke uncensored for a minute, after which they were escorted away by two actors in military uniforms. This work is part of a series of works where the primary intention is to activate viewer’s participation.

Such is the nature of performance that it is the art of invisibility. Contextualising itself as response to events and happenings that are invisibilized by the institutions. “Constructed situations” as Tino Sehgal calls his ephemeral and undocumented performances. His works engage the viewers in situations that could be absurd, awkward and intriguing. Informed by his studies in dance and economics, Sehgal constructs situations that challenge the conventional art and spectator relationships. His work focuses on gestures and social lived realities rather than the material object. Museums, art fairs, galleries and private collections are the sites where his works take their forms and meanings. He refuses any form of documentation of his performances emphasising on the ephemeral situations of the works. Sehgal does not subscribe to the unrealistic ideal of a world without any financial exchange. His practice creates complex dialogues around the function of art and the newer possibilities of both aesthetic and economic value of art.

Mandeep Raikhy, The Secular Project, Rann of Kutch, 2021

The vivid and dynamic possibilities that performance art bears has always questioned the existing identities, has created a space for the formation of newer ones and importantly it is a testimony that upholds participation. Mandeep Raikhy’s body movement based productions imbibe performative gestures that reflect upon the contemporary times and situations. His works are embedded in the discipline of dance. His practice over the years has sensitively engaged with the ideas of body, intimacy, sexuality and resistance. His 2016 production ‘Queen-size’ opened up a dialogue about a private space shared between two queer bodies that was a response to section 377 of Indian Penal Code that criminalized LGBTQ+ and other marginalised sexual identities. His ongoing work ‘The Secular Project’ is an extension of his earlier work that is taking its form in a space that is more dynamic, that is an unscripted road trip across the country, that has a live dimension, a digital space that is integral to the performance and text, all of which makes the form of the performance more complicated. In this case it is the sincere intention and efforts of the artist to diversify and embody the experience of the ‘secular’ in the context of the nation.

The multiplicities of art forms that emerged in the 70’s led to the rhetoric of the NGPA -New Genre Public Art, which provides wider context to understand above mentioned practices . The History of Artand existing practices makes one aware about certain key elements of performance art. What is primarily important is the action and the intention of the artist, the presence of the body, interactivity and site specificity. It is a direct way of engaging with the social reality, context of space and politics of identity. It always embodies the questions and concerns of the relatability of art to people and the wider social world.