Performance Art Could Redefine How Post Pandemic Art Is Experienced. At Least For A While

(This opinion editorial was written in May 2020 during the very first re-opening days after the COVID 19 lockdown)

There’s a cautious talk of reopening. While many businesses are aching to get back to “normal” as soon as possible, for most cultural institutions it would take much longer.

As infographics and the weather spread optimism and appetite for the physical world, many express their thoughts on how art would look going forward. In a recent interview, MOCA’s director Klaus Biesenbach mentions some of the challenges museums are facing, wondering how museums could reopen when people have to be at least 6 feet apart and hinting some of the answers could rely on how philanthropy would look like going forward, especially since blockbuster exhibitions will be less relevant for a while.

Looking at Germany, one of the first countries to gradually reopen cultural institutions, the problematics of “audience management” intensifies. A recent article at The Art Newspaper surveys the different solutions institutions in Germany now come up with- some use poles and ribbons to mark distance, some limit time audience can spend at each gallery, some offer masks. These solutions seem to answer to the administration of the public post pandemic but present another problematics: the policing of the exhibition space.  Better solutions, I argue, could be found by artists, specifically utilizing performance art and immersive experience methodologies.

It’s no secret that performance art becomes popular after crises. Think of the Dada movement that bloomed after WW1 and brought us manifestos, conceptual art and interdisciplinary forms, think of the happenings that emerged after the McCarthy era, bringing notions of participation, music scores, chance and the daily life into what is perceived art, think of the blockbuster museum exhibitions which followed the 2008 financial crisis, and proved the potential of performance to win the hearts of millions of audiences around the world, beginning with the eponymous MoMa show of Marina Abramovic ‘The Artist Is Present’.

Each one of these examples demonstrates how performance art answers to extreme structural, social or financial needs. Performance art was always able to be nimble and flexible conceptually and financially.

The past decade showed an unprecedented popularity for the medium. After almost a century that performance art was considered the odd radical alien in the art room it became the crowd pleaser of the decade, winning the big prizes of the Venice biennial twice in a row (Anne Imhof's ‘Faust’ won the golden lion award in 2017 and the Lithuanian Sun & Sea (marina) performance-opera won the award in 2019).

But the force of performance art lies beyond its budget and crowd appeal, it has the power to fluidly create movement of audience in a space, it has the embedded understanding of time.

If in the past the movement of visitors in a space was determined by the art object- being in front, behind, or around- the movement was relational to the art object, now each visitor would have to consider their own role- their movement would in itself be part of the art, bringing a participatory nature to the art exhibition experience.

Now, imagine the post pandemic museum space- floors lined with 6 feet markers, guards limit guests to 30 second visits at each space to monitor crowd control- is this the best way to experience art? 

Audience management should not necessarily feel administered. There are ample examples from past exhibitions which implemented choreographed audience movement in given structures, from Tino Sehgal’s 2010 Guggenheim show, where museum-goers were lead through different routes at the museum, to the blockbuster immersive theater experience ‘Sleep No More’ which allows audience an exploratory sensation while being lead through both space and time in a regulated way.

The new limitations are an opportunity to experiment with different approaches to the space and timeframe of the conservative exhibition experience. Can we help people connect and not fear each other? Can we make people look at art in new ways? Gain new perspectives? Can these new limitations lead to positive progress? Turning regulations into choreographed movement, turning  fear into an invitation to connect differently with art and each other. Imagine how meaningful it would be. 

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Lital Dotan is an artist and co-founder of Glasshouse ArtLifeLab performance art space in the Hudson Valley which is currently hosting a series of window performances adapted to the era of social distancing.