Performance, Action, Event

This research project is designed to examine the role of performance, actions and events in the context of the contemporary art museum. The main aim of the project is to consider the art historical and curatorial issues arising at the interface between performance-based practices and the contemporary art institution, with a special emphasis on case studies drawn from the recent history of a leading institution in the field, Tate Modern, but also extending more widely to place these case studies within a larger historical and geographical context. Whilst there is much interesting research on performance, the perspective taken here would be to look at the significance of temporary, live events in the context of the function, mission and life of a contemporary institution of art. Whilst Tate Modern is not necessarily typical in its scale or approach, its practice - which is widely regarded as innovative and of international importance - will provide detailed case studies for the project, which will be combined with selected comparative examples drawn from a large global reach.

There is a fairly long history of performance-based work, much of it well documented now in the history of modern art. This project would not be a survey but would look in particular at the history of such practices in relation to the museum of modern and contemporary art. Very schematically, from the 1960s, the sites and spaces of performativity were established as other than those of the museum, usually in an antagonistic relation to the institution. Now, on the other hand, commissioning programmes within art museums such as Tate Modern have brought radical performative practices back to the very heart of the institution, even so far as to be able to claim that they are now a vital part of the its life blood and survival. At the same time, the history of performances, actions and events has been revivified by art practice today (see, for example, the work of Tino Sehgal, Tania Brugera and Roman Ondak), and in consequence it has become urgent for both the academy and the museums of modern and contemporary art to look back and recalibrate the significance of historical precedents such as the work of Lygia Clark, Josef Beuys and Daniel Buren (to name a very few salient examples).

From the point of view of contemporary practice, the project would in part provide an alternative narrative account of some of those historical shifts that have occurred. One question that might be addressed would be how to reconfigure and re-describe the nature of those relationships between art and curatorial practice now, in the light of recent commissions by large museums. If the narrative is not simply a reductive one of collision to collusion with a culture of spectacle, then how can those new relationships be thought? Equally urgent, then, as a consequence is the problem of how to mediate both past and present work of this type, and specifically how to re-present radical performance and live art of the past without losing some or all of its meaning.

The project would necessarily look across disciplines, drawing on visual art, theatre and dance in particular. Given the nature of the work, it will be necessary to be able to develop a critical framework in which to discuss often hybrid art forms and to develop conceptual tools to examine new practices as well as the mediation of older practices within new contexts. The project would seek to analyse past art but also to envisage innovative new ways in which the institution might mediate such practices. Located between art historical and curatorial disciplines, the aim of the research is both to articulate a hitherto overlooked account of the relation of performative-based work to the museum and to develop fresh critical terms for thinking about this material.

The project will have an impact on a range of publics, from an academic audience who would benefit from the research findings and the creation of new critical perspectives (see previous section), to curators within larger museums as well as smaller institutions, through to a wider audience of visitors at Tate Modern who would experience future public programmes, for example, in the Oil Tanks due to open in 2012. Necessarily, impact would be both direct and indirect, but we envisage the latter - helping to shape future thinking within programming - should not be underestimated.

There is enormous interest in performance and the performative and much good work now (for instance, the 'Performance Matters' creative project on the contemporary value of performance funded by the AHRC). This project is designed to tap a rather different set of problems. It is not solely based on performance but spreads its remit more widely, and does so with specific reference to the contemporary modern art museum. Tate Modern's own history will be fundamental to it, viewed with the critical distance of an art historical perspective. The focus on 'Performance/Event/Action' at the interface of art historical and curatorial concerns, and with special reference to curatorial practice within the contemporary museum, marks it out from other research in this area and will have practical effects and impact on audience participation and experience within Tate Modern.

A doctoral thesis devoted to the issues described would make a very significant contribution and have an important impact on our understanding of mid- to late twentieth-century and recent art. The use of case-studies would be of special value in making concrete a range of critical issues and problems. The material in the thesis would have a larger impact through its dissemination in articles (in UCL's 'Object' for example) as well as conference papers. The symposium envisaged, to be organised by the recipient under the auspices and in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at UCL and Tate Modern, would broaden the audience to include an interested public as well as art professionals.