Performance is a spectrum; it's perception and definition fluctuates as a derivative based upon an individual's artistic realm. Along with the advancement of art and diverging social contexts, people throughout history have been trying to accurately depict "performance" with various coinages, such as happening art, performance art, action, live art, performing art and body art. Recent years, however, the expansion in contents and concepts embodied in art has surpassed existing modern art categories, forcing art attributes to be defined with "compounded labels". Such practice reflects the ingrained influence of modernist thinking and imposition of the economic system. Without clearly categorizing art, it is difficult for so to be engaged in dialogues with the public and eventually be commercialized for market consumption. Keeping such in mind, it is worthy to facilitate a discussion on an artist's experimental process that breaks the shackles of confined limitations imposed by the mechanism.
The social environment in Third World Countries gradually unfastened in the 1980s; cultural movements catalyzed entry of Western art into Asia, including avant-garde art forms of conceptual and performing art. After some time of exploration, artists fused these emerged artistic forms and concepts into existing ways of creation. Receptive atmosphere in the 1990s enabled artistic practitioners in various areas, whether working solo or as a group, to make breakthrough achievements in their respective specialties. The period from the end of the 1990s to the beginning of 2000 culminates as a watershed, where art market mechanisms and international communication were inaugurated. Performance art and the performing arts look to develop themselves through different platforms, such as art galleries, alternative spaces, art markets, performance art or performing arts festivals in China and other parts of the world. These platforms' respective conditions and limitations in turn transformed the forms and thinking of artistic creations. At this stage, performance art and performing art in the field of visual art were, more often than not, regarded as spectacles, or incidental additions to exhibitions.
Fast forward to the 2010s, when artistic organizations in all scales manifested in China; performance art and performing arts were more frequently seen in art venues as a mean to inspire discussions, especially presented through collaborations with art museums in public education and on-site projects. For example, the Grass Stage Culture Outpost: Social Theatre Forum series of lectures and performances organized by Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in cooperation with playwright Zhao Chuan since 2011, it commenced related discussions on experimental theatre and performances within museums; the Sonic Transmission series of experimental music performances organized through the cooperation with Hong Kong Arts Centre and artist Samson Young in 2012; the long-term survey on performance and sound art, which was presented to the public and conducted through the sub-project of Action Asia and SAVAKA—Asia Experimental Music Currents under Invisible Torrents: the Cultural Forces Reshaping Asia project launched by HUGO BOSS ASIA ART Award 2013; and the Being in Asia performance in collaboration with curator Zhang Yuan in 2015 focusing on permeating the elaborate network of Asian regional culture through body sensations.
Apart from public education projects, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai launched the experimental performance project ReActor in 2015, exploring ongoing artistic practices that eclipsed any description offered by the existing vocabulary. Ming Contemporary Art Museum was established in Shanghai in 2015, with a special focus on the study and curation of experimental theatres as well as multimedia exhibitions and performances. Since its establishment, it has presented curated exhibitions such as 30 Years of Experimental Theatre and Silent Stories: Jan Lauwers and produced _AO_AO_ING Performance Season. The annual art project of RAM HIGHLIGHT first launched by RAM in 2016 sets its focus on diversified vocabulary of artistic creation that's not easily categorized by the current cognitive structure. The curatorial team of RAM HIGHLIGHT hopes to break through existing forms of exhibitions, and considers consciously the multi-pronged relations between art and audience. The above-mentioned examples render a curious phenomenon amongst Chinese museums; an almost simultaneous instigation of researches on or projects about performance art and performing art. The sudden calibration of such art forms with the mainstream culture is vulnerable to potential risks of becoming another spectacle if it is not discussed sufficiently.
The series of lectures of Spectrum of Performance(ing) Arts is designed not to invent a new set of vocabulary or definition, or to inquire "What is Performance?" but rather to advance the exploration of how art in the un-bound state flows and mutates into a spectrum with plentiful connotations and streams possibilities. It looks forward to the confluence and interaction of diverse realms of art, discussions with the artist, curator, researcher and scholar perspectives on issues such as the role of the platform, methods of artistic creation, ways of watching performances, the concept of curating and development of performance art and performing art under the globalization framework, as well as more dialogues in unexpected aspects between the speakers and the audience.
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The Spectrum of Performance(ing) Arts is co-organized by the Rockbund Art Museum and independent curator Zoe Zhang Bing and supported by Shanghai Artemis Art Center.
The series of lectures also collaborated with Shanghai Study Center, the University of Hong Kong and iPANDA.