Når kunstgenstanden ikke længere er en genstand. Om performancekunstens udfordring for museumspraksis

Abstract

The article “When the art object is no longer an object – on performance art’s challenge to museum practice” investigates the challenges that museums in the 21st Century face when exhibiting and collecting performance art. As an ephemeral and time-based art form, performance art works against the classic museum traditions of registration and handling because it seldomly fits into the object-based categories. Performance art thus creates an opportunity to rethink the structures and categories of art in the museum institution. Based on a case study of the reperformance of the Serbian artist Marina Abramović (b. 1946), and the German artist Ulay’s (Frank Uwe Laysiepen, b. 1943) iconic work, Imponderabilia (1977), the article looks closer at some of the challenges of having performance as a live element in the exhibition. The point of departure is the retrospective exhibition, Marina Abramović – The Cleaner, at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark (2017). Although not part of the museum collection, the works by Abramović enable a discussion of some of the challenges with collecting and handling a live work of art. Abramović has played an important role in the institutionalizing of performance art, and she still busts the framework of museums when she forces institutions to adapt to her art works. Performance art proves to still not fit into the museum – at least not in the traditional categories or terms – but maybe that is about to change, as museums seem keen to adapt their curatorial and collecting practices to the performance works.