Sorins 2008

23

Marina Abramovid and the Re-performance of Authenticity JessicaChalmers Introduction

that hasdominated academic This essayargues that thecritiqueof authenticity since the early 1980sis cur:rently being dismantledunderthe rubric of discourse a a general 1960srevival-including a revival of authenticity, rnoral category purity.Evidence authenticity's of return-and havingto do with representational in the phenonrenon "re-perfolmance,"whereby of transformation-can be seen perfonnances recreated thepurposeofre-experiencing, are for scantlydocumented performances from the late documenting,and preservingthem. These recreated 1960sto niid-1970sare not nlererepetitionsof the original works. most of which were not meant to be repeated either live or in photosor on videotape. Most of of art the re-performances this ephemeral havebeenpresented the purposes fbr of historicafpreservation, including Marina Abramovii's SevenEasy Pieces,which in is discussed this essay. Curiously,the preservation work whoseauthenticity of once expresslyrelied on its not being preserved has not met any resistance, even from thoservhohad previouslyinsistedon ephemerality perforrnance's as defining feature. readthis development evidence I as representation tlratattitudes tolvards are shifting.at leastin the avant-garde. seemsthat authenticity, It itself, is changing. As PhilipAuslander shown,r meaning authenticity not stable, has the of is but has shiftedin relation to technologicaland generational change.In what follows, I attribute the welcome receptionbeing accordedre-performance the current to generationalconfiguration.With the looming retirementof baby boornersand the rise of the new "millennial"generation, 1960s-a periodI understand the as beginningaround1963andendingwith the U.S. pullout from Vietnamin 1914-is beingrecalled with ner.v interest.In theart andperfomanceworlds,this is occurring throughtr,vo linked processes. First, thereis a nostalgicprocessofhistoricization and sacralization that seeksout and honors neglected1960sfigures and works. Second. process thereis a regenerative that blings back ideas,frameworks,styles, and rcchniques modelsfbr luture artisticendeavors.Subjectto both processes. as many works that were dismissed naively essentialist the 1980sand 1990sare as in being rediscovered-their rescuefrom oblivion renderedeven n-rore dramaticby the idea of their originally intendedephemerality. Having been createdto exist authentically only in the present-and thushavingbeencreated. PeggyPhelan as

Jessi caC hal m er s t each esperfbrmanc eart and perfonnanc es tudi esi n the U ni v ers i ty ofN otre D am e's D epar t m cnt of Frl m, Tc l ev i s i on, and Theater. Thi s es s ay i s part ofher c urrent book pr oj ect on gener at i on a nd repres c ntati on,tentati v el y enti tl ed The A uthenti t' i ty R ev i v ol .

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Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

are into has noted, in order to disappearr-these performances being resurrected legacy. as art history and re-performed a generational The 1960sToday There is a sensein which the 1960shave never really died, and the current to momentsthat revival doesbear a generalresemblance other 1960s-re1'erencing have cycled through popular culture over the past fbrty years.One might recall. Coca-Cola's1994 launchingof Fruitopia,a "revolutionary"beverage for instance, The appearance that kind of with flavors like "Strawberry PassionAwareness." of of marketing,along with the reappearance chokersand other fashions,were a parl of the brief retro phenomenon the rnid-1990s. Yet the current revival is of revivals,rvhichlackedtoday'swistfulness distinctfiom suchcommercially-dt-iven towardsthe period.Along with a generalshift in mood towardspositive thinking (including the adventof Happiness Studiesin academia), therehave beenseveral (a day-long Summerof Love celebrationin San fortieth-anniversary celebrations the of coversby younger Francisco, namea recentexample). release new Beartles to bands,the publicationof severalnew books abor-rt Beatles,at least one film the about them (Julie Taymor's Across the Uni.verse). well as the publication of as autobiographies Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. who has also been the subject of of a recentTodd Haynes frlm, I'm Not Here. Bell-bottom pants have also made a comeback,but the biggestsurpriseis the return of 1960sart, and in particular, 1960sperfbrmanceart, whose brand of authenticitytends towards austerityand away from audience entertainment any kind. of Most of the revived performanceworks have lain dormant,untouchedeven by their creatorsfor thirty to forty years.This neglect was due, in part, to the changein inteliectualciin'rateat the end of the 1970s,a changethat cast these works in a rather shamefullight. In the 1980sand into the 1990s, they reekedof "essentialisrn," quality that has finally lost its vituperative a energyand come to seemalmost vague.As an accusation, essentialism has certainly lost most of its sting.As an accusation that. in particular,f'eminists the "theory generation"had of becomeaccustomed flinging at their direct elders,essentialism longer seems no to to havethe moral currencyto upholddifferences r,vith outmoded, betweenthose an traditional understanding (gender)identity as given and authentic,and those of with a more sophisticated, understanding identity as contingentand theoretical of constructed. Startingin the late 1990s,the austerityof the critical discoulsethat branded early performance asessentialist alongwith the generational tensions ar1 that this brandingupheld-began to fade suchthat today this work finally begins to acquirethe feeling of history."This period lthe l960sl is nor'v l.tistory," Roselee Goldberg announcedin conjunction with the 2005 founding of Performa, the performance-centered organizationdedicatedto the resurrectionof older work and the inspirationof new. It is therefore,shewrites, "ripe for excavation,which

Sprins 2008

25

. . . explainsthe increasingvisibility of perfbrmance, especiallyin the museum context."3 Art institutionshave indeed contributedto the greatertrend. Examplesare the Whitney Museum of Art, which held a celebratoryStmtnterof Love exhibit in2001 , and the current show at the Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art, SoCai.' SouthernCalifornia Arr of the 1960sand 70sfrom LACMA'S Collection.There focusirrgexclusivelyon the avant-garde, many havebeenmultiple retrospectives in of which have featuredwomen arlistswhoseworks rvereunder-recognized the at 1960sand after: CaroleeSchneernann ]'he New Museum in Nerv York (1997). Martha Roslerat the Ikon Gallery in London ( 1998),andEleanorAntin at The Los AngelesArt Museum (1999).The RonaldFeldmanFine Arts Gallery in New York tapeson display. also recentlyput HannahWiike's Intra-Venus Perhapsthe most curious development,however, is the re-performance which revives the aesthetics authenticityreviled by theory.Rephenomenon. of are performances performances from the pastthat,in recentyears,havebeenbrought to life againwith the intentionof renderin-e homageto their original context.Rather thancomparingthem to a theatrical revival, which implies mere repetition,Phelan has comparedre-performance the musical practiceof "covering" the works of to others.The following examplesreveal that this recent trend in re-performance hasbeendedicated coveringthe works of 1960sartistsalmostexclusively:The to Museumof Contemporary Art sponsored recreation John Cage'sMusiCircus a of in 2005 and 2007. The WoosterGroup has been working on rwo piecesthat use re-performance-Poor Theater, ambivalenthomageto JerzyGrotowskiandthe an Polish LaboratoryTheatre'sproductionAkropolis (as it was recordedin a 1962 fllm), and anotherpiece,Hamler, which repeated and reworkedRicharclBurton's 1964film of the Bloadway production.A recreation the ur-pelformance rhe of of l960s,AllanKaprow's lsHappeningsitt6Parts(1959),r,vasfeaturedatrhesecond performancebiennial sponsored Petforma, an organizationwhose founding by itself marks a revival of the perfbrmance form basedon modelsestablished art in the 1960sratherthan the 1980s, when performance had a ratherdifferentform. As a way of looking into the meaningof theserevivals, I offer the example of Abramovi6'sre-performance project SevenEasy Pieces,rvhich was presented at the GuggenheirrMuseum in New York in 2005. Curated by Nancy Spector, Abramovi6's recreationsof seminal works from the 1960s \,vasan exhaustive excavation performance of authenticity it wasmanifested endurance At the as in art. sametime, this newly resurrected authenticitywas theatricalin a way that would have been scornedduring the 1960sitself. "In the beginning," Abramovii once remarked, "you had to hatetheater.. . to rejectall the artificiality of the theater. the rehearsal situation,in which everythingis predictable, time structureand the the predetermined ending."aBy contrast. Selr'r Ea.sr. Piecesusedtheatricalrneasures to enhancethe experienceof the original works: video projectionson multiple

26

Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

large screens, presence the ofdocumentarycameras, and props.Gaugingfiom the was not undermined. response, perception the pieces' the of authenticity Instead, into something thattook placew'ithin seemed havebeentransformed to autlrenticity ratherthan, impossibly,outsideit. representation The Abramovid Re-performances key performance SevenEasyPieceswas a highly visible recreation several of piecesfrom the 1960s includingoneof Abramovi6's. The Belgrade-born and 1970s. Abramovi6's so-called"easy pieces"took place in the atrium of Ner,v York City's GuggenheimMnseum on sevenconsecutive nights. Each ni-ehtthe performance lastedfor sevenconsecutive hours,endingwith a new piececreated Abramovii by for the occasionin which she appearedin an enormoussheenyblue dress that encornpassed stagelike a tent.The dress,which garnered leastcommentary the the in the publishedresponses.s litied her high above the ground floor audienceand into the spiral of the Guggenheim.The piecesthat got the most attention from the press werg more raw, iess clothed. and, in them, Abramovid took her usual meditative-even zonedout-approach to self-torture and sexualdisplay.Whereas in the big blue dressshe had fairy-tale proportions.the older piecesrecreated the matter-of-factness-theearneslness-of 1960sart. The blue dressrvasa fiction. an exaggeration: older piecesmostly returnedto the aesthetic literalism-of the of authenticity-that demandedreal time duration, unfalsi{iecl emotional response, and task-likededicationto the rvork at hand. Endurance is the slne qua non of performance authenticity becausethe performerproceeds calmly,in a state quasi-rneditation, an atmosphere crisis. of in of ln pain or just stillness, Abramovii is as straightforrvard possible.Ordinarily, as she speaksvery little. Her calm acceptance explicitly not entertaining. is Neither is her nudity meantto be entertaining. many works, shepresents In herselfwitlrout the "pretence"ofclothes, as only herself.The nude body also becomesa passive vehicle.madeavailable harm,derision, to andstimulation, posedescribed some a by critics as a gift or, in curatorNancy Spector'sterm, "an essayin subnrission."6 The most famousexampleof this is RhythmO (1914), in which Abramovidpresented herselfseated impassivelybehind a table of implements,many of them weapons, which spectators were invited to use againsther. The pertbrmancewas stopped when the audience becametoo violent: a man held a pistol up to her head. PatricePavis,rvho describes Abramovii as a "Calamity Jane" "rvho causes constant problemsin additionto beingthe victim of theseself inflictedproblems,"T points out the traditional dramatic structurein Abramovii's performances: she puts herself at risk and then rescues herself.This definition,horvever, makes Abramovii soundlike a circusperformerand doesn'ttake into accountthe length ofher performances their intendedstatusas spiritualordeals. The audience or and the performer sharehours of silence and stillness-a sharingthat continues.in

Snring 2008

27

Abramovii's thinking, even if the audiencemembersleave.The long rounds of end of severalof the more difficult Abramovii receivedat the midni-eht applause eveningsof SevenEasy Pieces indicated admiration,but also relief. lf there is rescueinvolved in this work, it is also a rescuingof the audience. Rabbit" was the '.Back to the Days of crotchlessPantsand a Deceased Abramovii re-perlbrmances irreverenttitle of the New York Timesreview of the AustrianValie Expolt's writtenby RobertaSmith.sThe title refenedto two pieces: Beuys'sHow trt ExplainPicturesto Pants: GenitalPanic ( 1969)andJoseph Action a Dead Hare ( 1965).In addition,Abramovii performeda pieceof her own, Lips oJ (The ( Thomas 1975),as rvell aspiecesby Vito Acconci(Seedbed.1972),GinaPane and Bruce Nirumann(BttdyPressure,l974).Eachpiece wtis Conditittning,1913), as its influence, both Abramovi6'sartisticdevelopment well on of because chosen a labor of sonlething of history,making the evenings asthe entiretyof performance as canonization rvell as a personalqueston Abramovi6'spart. In beconlinga part art-the art that had forever shunnedthe inauthenticityof of history,performance and collection,docutnentation, the market- was becomingrespectable. This new respectability"rescues"the form from popular culture, which has performance, irrcluding Abramovii's work. borrowedplentifully from avant-garde Sex in tlte City featureda fictionalizedversiotl of One episodeof the sixth season of Abramovi6's 2002 performance.The House With The Ocean View.Also, as depicted in the book PerJbrma, Vogueltalia did a fashion shoot that exactly copied Jaap de Graaf's documentaryphotographsof Relation in Space(1916), which Abramovii performedwith her former paftner,Ulay. The Guggenheim's presentation SevenEasy Pieces indicated that this type of perforltlancehas of relatively it and tl.rat has emerged beenre-routedback to the high-artmainstreirm, now can boastofhaving a rosterof unscathed existence. It from its mass-culture starswhose appearance-albeit "virtually," throughAbramovi6-has put the art its form back on the map as a commodity.lts anti-markethistory only enhances valueon the academicand art markets. than the Timesand,notably,did not mentiol) Most reviewsweremore reverent the yearswhen this sort of performancewas not made,seen,or written about.The rehad performances as rendered recentpastcontinuous, if anti-essentialism never the world rvelcomed fracturedthe academicpublic's interestin the art form. The an Abramovi6, who has referred to herself as the "grandmother of perfbrmance art," and the medium by which she made her name and in rvhosename she has continuedto createfor over fbrty years. In particular,they rvelcomedthe idea of re-pertbrmance. which providesan overview of the field for those unfamiliar with it. and is a validating salute to some of the key figures in a disappearing past.From all accounts,seeingAbramovi6 re-performtheseseminalworks was a vivid blastfrom a pastthat, more often than not, had equatedremembrance-at leasttechnologically-aided Their paradoxical remembrance- rvith inauthenticity.

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Journal of Dramatic TheorLand Criticism

as existence, both documentandevent,allorvedthe re-performances circumvent to with the cunent l96Osrevival even deliveringa blastthat resonates inauthenticity, like for audiencemembers-once-removed, me. The Guardians of Community in of of If being oneselfwasone aspect the I 960sethosreflected the starkness perforrnance the other was contmtmih, the idea that crowds might be capable art. of of organicallyproducingan authenticexperience self amongothers.More than retained crowdsof fascism,theradicalsof the 1960s trventyyearsafterthe negative that would not promote contbrmity or violence the notion of a like-mindedness evenlove- althoughany form of intensity,including cooperation, but celebration, Curiously a angry contiontation,seemed sign that somethingreal was happening. by non-exclusiveof the inflammatorycrorvdsof fascismdescribed Elias Canetti, no the authenticcrowd of the 1960srvasone that escherved afliliative act,negative or positive.lt was the intensity that counted. By all accounts,being in the audienceof SevenEasy Pieces brought back focus this 1960sfeeling about the utopian potentialitiesof group life. Responses particularly on Abramovii's recreation of Vito Acconci's Seedbed,a piece in which he had masturbated underneath gallery floor, "seeding"the gallery space a to as he listenedand responded the soundsof visitors above.For many, the party atmospheregeneratedamong the audienceof the re-performedAcconci piece left seemed pick right up where Richard Schechner off rvhenhe wrote in 1973 to that "lplarticipation takes place precisely at the point where the performance breaksdor,vn and becomesa social event."oThe critic TheresaSmalecillustrates perspectivewhen she writes of the circular spacewhere the audiencesat this aboveAbramovi6 (for fifteen minutes at a time) that it seemed"a spaceof true memberstook on a sudden reciprocity"r0 because interactions the amongaudience intimacy. She also describeshow, at a certain point, the "break-dorvn" of the performance(as Schechner it) was so intensethat it requiredthe intervention has of a museumguard,a situationthat compelledan even greaterdegreeof bonding among the crowd. audience members As transcripts from the recorded conversations Seedbed of I reveal,l the sense inhabitinga communalspace wasproduced the absurdity by of as well as,no doubt,the faniliarity-of the ideaof sexas an endurance as well art. asby the relief experienced on amongthosewho had beenin the audience previous evenings,rvhenthe contentof the work was self-torture. Ironically,the communal t'eelingwas alsoproducedby the invisibility of the performer,who was heardbut not seen. Without her sober,fbcusedgaze,theaudience seems have grown giddy at to the mereideaof interacting with eachotherundersuchunusual Critic circumstances. Johanna Bufton commentsin this regardthat the "most striking of all" in IheSeven Ettsy Pieces"was the audience'snewfound interestin itself." In the transcribed

conversations, recordedd'ring the actualperformances, audience membersoften commented lvhat it lvas like to be there,chattingasAbramovii on moanedbelolv them. As Burton and othersalso point out, rhis tbcLrs the experience on or bein_e in the audience was encouraged the Guggenheim's ..As by theatricar architecture: much as peoplelooked torvardthe platform concealingthe artist, tl.rey also looked pastit to surveyeachother surveying. . . an activity encouraged by the presence of a high-powertelescope placedon the secondfloor.,,r2 Abramovii's invisibility may have encouraged audiencemembersto bond with eachother,but her sexualtark also encouraged audience the to con'ect with her through fantasy.In keeping with the Acconci model, Abramovi. whispered descriptions what she was thinking and doing into of a microphonefiom a roon below' According to Smalec,the model superceded the origina's participatory ethos because Abramovid's sexual talk was ressobjectifying. wt rr. Acconci describedspectators'contributi.nsas pas.sivery contributing ; his fantasy and pleasure, "Abramovii," writes Smalec,i'sists that ,.our footstepsare not enough; we must activery immerse ourselvesin shaping our contact with her.,,Smarec quotes Abramovii's rathermaternalinvocationto ,.[c]rose your eyesandkeepthem closed.Forgetyou're at the museum.Don't be afraicl.Don,t be ashamed. Give to me all thatyou desire."l3 According to severalaccounts. reastone at of see.dbed,.s audience responded to Abramovii's invitatiotr to give of himself with a literalnessthat, to the other audience membersseated the floor besidehirn, on bespoke authenticityof his the intentions.Smalecwrites that he startsvigorouslyrubbinghis groin against the edgesofthe inner circle. As Marina climaxes yet again, he drops to the grouncl on all fours and luridly yells, ..Doesthat excite you?,,Security immediately rushes in, commanding hirn to leave. What,s uplifting is how onlookers ,.you protestthis encroachment: don.t understand perfbrmance!,, . . Eventually, the . the guardsrelent: the unruly man is permittedto stay.we've won our little victory against sanitized the machine.ra From the rg60s perspective smalec espouses this point in the essay, at the museumguardsrepresent machine-a the repressive presence againstwhich the audiencecould bond. yet from anotherperspective, the guards representorder and even a higher aestheticinteiligence in the face of the crorvd's chaotic self_ apprcciation. RobertaSrnith, who refers to some guards by name and in general treatsthem as the heroes of SevenEasr pieces,writesthat..A young guard ... expressed disappointment, saying that it seemedrike a carnival ride as people stood in line to reach the stage, rvaitedon the stagefor soundsof a crimax and

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Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

For then disernbarked." Smith, the guard'sview is the authenticone.Not only are but they describedas being in sympathywith the true aims of the performance. to watchingprovidesa gracefulcounterpart the of their pertbrmance professional crowd: "A slim young man tried to vault onto the stagebut was almost agitatecl caughtjust in time by Rob Rominiecki, the directorof the nruseum's soundlessly staff."ls notablyalertand tactlulsecurity Abramovi6, who never mentionsthe young man, speaksof the Interestingly, of Acconci piece as one of the hardestto perform because the kinds of endurance involved. First, since she set as her goal the production of as many orgasmsas possible,therewas the sheerdifficulty of the task.Also, unlike the majority of her requiredher to use speechto communicateher experience. own pieces,Seedbed With only an audio connectionto the listenersabove, she had to prove her by achievement continuing to speakof and incite her own pleasurefor the full sevenhours ofthe performance: I{aving orgasmspublicly, being excited by the visitors. steps I above me-it's reallynot easy, tell youl I've neverconcentrated but so hardin my life. My friend gaveme sonresexymagazines, on and on I really didn't use them. I concentrated the sounds. as the idea that I had to have orgasms, proof of my work. And neverfake anything.. . . I endedwith so I did. I don't fake it-I l^ nineor git s ms . The otherdifficulty rvasher isolationfrom thecrowd."The problemfor me with this piece,"Abramovii later said,"was the absence public gaze:only the sound."r7 of In her own work, the exchangeof gazesverifiesher sacrifice.The audiencealso comes in order to be verified, to be seenby the performer who. in the rlidst of her ordeal,is possessed an extraordinaryauthenticity.Starvingor in pain, the of performerseems confer somethinglike gracethroughher gaze.If not grace,her to performanceis at leastan occasionfor an exchangeof recognitionthat createsa herself specialbond betr.veen performerandher audience. Abramoviddescribes the receptivity to in perfornrance in an extraordinary, trance-likestateo1'extreme as "I the spectators. don't have this kind of feeling in real life, but in performanceI Iravethis enormouslove."rsRefemingto a performance which shelived, naked in andfasting,in a galleryfor twelve days,shespeaks a "connectionwith the eyes" of that nourished and healed: They projecttheir own sadness onto me and I reflectit back.And I cry out in the saddest way, so they arefiee. Peoplewould come like drunks- instead a shotof vodkathey cameto havea shot of with theeyes. of thisconnection The gallerywould openat nine'

and they would come in, look at me for 20 minutesand go away. . . . I was thinkingthatpeopleusuallydon't look at them in this intimate way, so maybethey just neededto be looked at in that way beforegoing to work.le of Severalofthe other SevenEasy Piecesdid featurethis catharticexchange looks. For instance,in the Valie Export piece.Action Pants: Genital Panic, the sexual rvasconliontedby the artist'sgazewhile in a poseof unapologetic spectator seated receivingher audience Abramovii replayedExport rvith machismo. exposure. leatherpants,holding a rifle. That pointedlyin crotchless legs spread on the stage, recreationwas. in fact, of a publicity photographrather than of the performance her ironic, but Abramovii was itself (in rvhichtherewas no gun) might be considered with being rigorously literal. ln 1969,Export had walked up anddown not concerned action pants,telling peoplethat "what the aislesof an art cinema in her crotchless you rvatching and you seenow is reality,and it is not on the screen, everybodysees rather quickly after The original audienceapparentlyleft the theatre this now."20 reality and the shameof having evet'ybody with this aggressive being confiontecl them seeit. In the 2005 version,the bravadoof the original was eventually see by undermined Abramovii's feminine stillnessas she sat and looked out into the By stretchingtlte works to sevenhours, Abramovi6 managedto turn audience. long .ln of every past work into a spectacle endurance Action Pants, sheassumed stills. Thus she of into a series excruciating Export'sflashing poses, transtbrming ofExport's genital show.Instead,she fully on the shock-value did not capitalize at down to the point of sadness: one point. shelocked eyes slowedthe experience with a (female) spectatorfor nearly an hour, during which they both begau to cry. The spectator, locked into Abramovii's stillness,herselfbecamesomethingof an sufferingreportedly unspecified endurance of artist,and the spectacle that shared, mesmerized crowd. the The Authenticity of Witnessing this was not the lay lf Seetlbed's tltopian resonance in its pafty atmosphere, casefor the self-torturepiecesin |lte SevenEasyPiecescycle, which took placein nearsilence. piecesasthemostdifficult, mostaccounts creditthese Understandably, mainly because tlrey require the audienceto endureits own desireto watch.The crowd is united in a traditional way in keepingwith Aristotelianprinciples:they havepity tbr the sut'fbring, fear for her comfort or evenher survival.They also and fear for their own predicament witnesses suchan excessive, art. to unnecessary as They want and don't want to watch. They are united by curiosity; they are also unitedby disgust-fbr the performerand themselves. Writing abouta performance in by Angelika Festa,in which shehangsin a gallery cocooned white cloth, Peggy Phelanwrites:

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Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

As I r'vatchFesta's exhaustionand pain, I feel cannibalistic, morecomplicated arvful,guilty.'sick.'But aftera rvhileanother response emerges. Thereis sornething ahnostobscenely arroganl in Festa's invitationto this display.It is manifest the 'imitative' in aspectof her allusionsto Christ's resurrectionand his bloody of feet, and latently presentin the endurance demands both she and her s pec tator h e rs e l l .2 l In the 1975 performanceof Lips r,tfThomas.Abramovii drank wine tiom a glass,brokethe glasswith her hand,cut a five-pointedstarin her stomach, whipped above herself,and then lay down on a ice cross while a spaceheatersuspended causedher to bleed even more. While the original promptedaudiencemembers to implore her to stop,to approachher, cover her, and drag her off the cross,thus endingthe performance two hours,this tirneAbramovii took seven at hours,piecing rvould out the tortureinto shorterphases that therewas lesschancethe audience so fear for her life or try to interverre. Severalaudience memberscalled out for her to to The stop,but nobodyinterrupted proceedings forcibly preventthe self-abuse. the presence Guggenheim a by as of security, conditionmentioned somecommentators significantlyalteringthe pieceas it was originally intended, madethe eventtamer that therewas no needfor such an acutedegreeof spectator in the sense alertness - and thus therewas no opporlunity for the kind of collaboration as in the original that required(or so it seemed) savingAbramovid'slife in the original. This rescue operationrvasalso laudedas an exampleof true participationby SteveDixon in his recenthistory of media and performance, anotherreminderof the authenticity revival. In his blog, David Byrne likens the experienceof watching Lips of Thomas to an anthropologist'ssurveillanceof "a scarificationor a puberty ritual in the Guinea."rrIn graspingthe ritual aspect, outbackor in the highlancls PapuaNer.v of primary motive: empathy,and a feeling that he nevertheless missesthe audience's can be described the obligationto witness."A metronometicked away," writes as Marla Carlson,one of the ferv to leport Abramovii's tears:"When the first cut was complete, Abramovidblottedit with a white cloth. Slipping her feet into bootsthat rvaitednearby,putting on a military cap, and picking up a heavy wooden staff, she stood and cried, her belly heaving,tears streamingdown her cheeksas she, and we, listenedto a Russiantblk song." Carlsonstates that, althoughsheherself "watched the cutting action unmoved . . . the spacebecamevery quiet at those points,no movement. little whispering. the third cut, someone On out. 'you calleci don't have to do it again.'Obviously otherswere more disturbedby it than I, and by many turned away from the flagellation."The idea of leaving was squelched has the sense responsibility the event,something of to David Byrne's audience

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probably never felt, at least with such intensity.There was a feeling that, since Abramovi6'spu{posewas to gift the audiencewith her sacrifice,no one shouldin leave."I talked to other people who felt, as I did, that lve owed good conscience Carlsonstayedfor the full sevenhours. it to her to stay."23 Ephemerality as Legacy A common response Abramovii's re-perfbrmance to cycle, and to the idea of re-performancein general, has been to suggestthat it contradictsphelan's dictum of 1993:"Performance's much-debated only life is in the present.',24 This which reflects Phelan's statement, largerargument aboutthe ephemerality nonand reproducibilityofperformance,is, in part, an extension ofthe 1960sstandagainst includingdocumentation. representation, Abramovii speaks a generation for when that,in the l960s,"we decidedthat we',vouldn'tmakeany documentation shestates of our work. It would only exist afterwardby word of mouth."2s The authenticity of the performanceevent was predicatedon its "dematerialization," use Lucy to Lippard'sterm,26 suchthat.as a result,thereis little evidencesavefor some(often purposelyunartful) black-and-whitephotos- photosthat fare ratherpoorly in these daysof vivid imaging, at leastas realisticrepresentations. 1999,Jon Erickson In suggested theseblack-and-rvhite that performance photoshave a veneerof "mere utility."27 My sense thatrhemeaningof black-and-white is phorography changing is astechnologychanges, that, while monochrome and film was oncelessexpensive andhada classicor standard look, it is more andmore becominga minority practice thatconnotes artisticintentionsofthe photographer. the Thus it is possibleto view the performancedocumentsfrom the 1960sin two ways: both as it might have beenviewedin the 1960s andafterasutilitarian,unfussy. literal- and,with today's eyes'as inadequate. outmoded.and affected,even artsy. Today'sever-inrproving technologiesrapidly produce the inadequacyof the old-their inadequacyas representation, a supplement or replacement real events.At the sametime, as to of though,the enhancernents new technologies of producethe old photos' authentic status artifactsof the 1960s.a lost time. as This senseof their inadequacyhas, today, brought many artists, including Abramovii, arouncl sressingthe importance documenting to of work, especially in their baching. Abramovii states that, at a certainpoint, shesimply changed mind her aboutdocumentation. Unlike many of her contemporarles, wasconscious the she of professional importance documentation of earlyon -her mother,theDirectorof the Museumof Art andRevolutionin Belgrade, wasa conscientious documentanan. As a result,shehas more of a record of her early work than othersdo who were also working during the 1960s. shefelt compelledonly recently Yet to work directly in documentary modes.Severalyearsprior shehad begun showirr The Biography, g a piececomprisedof shortened versionsof her most importantpastperformances. "You seemy whole life. The performanceis condensed, though as they are video

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Journal of Dramatic Theor)' and Criticism

type re-performance event that initiated Abrarnovi6's clips." It's a greatest-hits "I more like theatre. association ernbraces: play these an she foraysinto something opera is the most artificial place.In the '70s we in the context of opera,because was different."28 of hatedtheaterbecause its artificiality.Performance any of it had althoughnot because SevenEasyPiecesrvasalso theatricalized, as been shortened, in The Biography,which reprisedeachearly piece in three or wasin tl.re predictability each The theatricality Seven EasyPieces of of four minutes. personnel hours),thepresence museum who ushered timing (ahvays seven of piece's video projectionsthat, in the audience and out, and the useofdeluxe, super-sized on eachnight, showedbits from previouseveningsbehind her as she pedbrmed. filmmaker Babette As part of a documentarybeing rnadeby 1960savant-garde Mangolte, all the eveningswere also rigorously capturedfrom severalangles.ln it light of thesedevelopments, is clear that, whatevertherewas left in Abramovi6 procedures dissipated. contentof her work has The I 960stastefbr epherneral of the time andacute to of continues be ephemerality-the presence theperformersharing has becomemore expansive. with an audience-but the forn-r experience I arguethat thesechanges Abramovii's approach her work and its future in to on are symptomaticof a greatershift in the relationshipto representation the part if Abramovii claims to have had of the avant-garde, not a larger group.Althou-eh and theatricalizing her a rathersuddenchange heartwith regardto documenting of work, herchange Not only haveotherartistsbegun ofheartdid not occurin isolation. to considerthe future oftheir work, but therehas beena generalrise in interestin the issueof performancedocumentation amongacademics. Most provocatively,Phil Auslander's"The Performativityof Performance Documentation"arguesfor the primacy of documentationitself:"the act of documentinB eventas a perjbrmance an is vuhat follows the Derrideanformula cortstitutes as.srclr."2e it This deconstruction for undermininggiven beliefs, in this casea belief about causeand effect^ln his essay,the temporality of the performancedocument in relation to the event is strategicallyreversed,such that the idea of the perfbnnanceas a causalevent is undermined.This argumentis useful as a way of destabilizingwhat Auslander refers to in his book Liveness(1999) as tft., performancestudiesideology of the live. Auslanderis, ofcourse,extending refutationofPhelan'spresence-centered his argument, it alsoseems but clearthat he is participating a broaderpreoccupation in with the past and its preservation. One might also legitirnatelyrvonderrvhy this argument,and why now? One answerto thesequestions can be found by noticing that this new interest in preservingperlbrmanceis occurringin relationto 1960sarts specificallyrather than to the mediumqua medtum.At the moment,no one is particularlyconcerned with the preservation early Dada pertbrmanceor with the (admittedlyberterof documented) performances the 1980s. of Auslander,too, takeshis examplesfrorn the late 1960sand early-to-rnid l9?0s: Chris Burden,Yves Klein, Vito Acconci.

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while it might also be persuasively arguedthat the appearance this questionof of has documentation to do mot'ewith an interest trackingtheeffectsof technology's in ability to recordand thus prescrvesoundand image,this singular ever-increasing focus on the artistsof a particularperiod must also be accounted for. Another,relatedanswerto the questionof w/r-y now is directly relatedto the At agingof the 1960sgeneration. somepoint in the late 1990s, preservarion the legacybeganto be a priolity, creatinga needfor the redefinition ofa generational of the relationshipbetween event and its documentation-and, by implication, itself. From this perspective, of authenticity Phelan'scelebration the ethics of seemsa llnal articulationof a position that has finally become of disappearance for thatpioneered with therise of a youngergeneration untenable the generation it. that has had no exposureto that foundationalrvork. the generation that pioneered idea of ephemeralityas authenticityis having to recognizeits limits. putting the asidethe ideathat we areliving at theend of historyol in a pr.lst-historical moment, that promotedtheseideasaboutthe ephemerality the generation and finality of our times is being compelledto recognizethe future. For the baby boom generarion, the rise of the millennialscan only be readas evidence that a future existsin which the boom will not figure, except in representation. Deconstruction's Nostalgia I have referredto the "theory generation."as if those who came of a-ee after the first wave of the Baby Boom (roughly,in the 1970s),,lvere generarion a unto themselves. However, this is a misnomer.Generations usually understood are in twenty-to-thirtyyear cycles,approximatelythe sarrre amountof time that it takes for one individual or family ro matureand reproduce. distinctionshouldbe ma<Je A betweenthis biological unclerstanding generational of identity and a group rvhose identity is basedon a sharecl experience major events,often traumaticones.I of follow sociologistBryan S. Turner in calling this last type of group a "cohort."3o The generationin academia and the arts who I've referredto as the "theory generation"is thus really a cohort rather than a whole generation.As a result, their identificationrvith the first boclmercolrort.the so-called"Generationof '68"' is mixed. Today they identify as a generation, though cluringthe years of their coming-of-age.their cohort identity rvas the stronger.During the l9g0s and 1990s.thesesubversive young intellectuars took on the receivedideasof the "hippies." ln the effbrt to clistinguish itself',the group made its mark through negation,by deconstructingthe authenticity promotecl their direct by elders as a meansof liberation.Today,however,the first and secondcohofts of the boom seemto be coming togetherso that it is becorningharderto clistinguish betrveen them intellectually.So close in their experienceof the eventsof the 1960s(one group in its teens,the other in its twenties),thesecohortsare currentlycoheripgin their sense themselves a largergeneration. of as with the rise of the millenniais,

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the generationalidentity of the boom has becomemore important.At the same the betweenauthenticityand its time or as a resultof this development, diff'erence is deconstruction also fading. This fadingcanbe seen inAuslander'sLiveness, which thedeconstruction in he to authenticityappears containnostalgiafor the very deploysagainstperformance Auslanderinterpretsthe authenticityof live perfbrmance as thing it deconstructs. as a quality producedthroughaprocessofauthentic'ationthatchanges technology changes.Yet his discussionof this processdoes not quite achieve the kind of objective, value-freeposition that the phrase"processof authentication"would imply. (That developmentmust wait for the deconstruction the authenticity of of event advancedin his later essay,"The Performativity of Performance In Documentation," which is arctually reconstruction authenticity.) this earlier a of of displaysambivalence thinking-through the meaningof the live, Auslzrnder particularlywith regardto its expression rock music. His torvardsauthenticity, in ambivalence in part,theproductofhis age:he cannotquiteleavebehindthe value is, placedon the unprocessed soundsofhis youth.This is not a failure on his part,but a reflectionof the generational dynamicsat work in the returnof authenticity. Liveness beginswith a discussion performance andwith a deconstruction of art, of the ideathatpresence constitutional pertbrmance. is for Nostalgiaappears only in of chapters the book that takeon the ideolo,sy the live specificto the field of rock of music.The first section that,ashe dispenses easilywith the ideologyof authenticity argues, conceptually the undergirds field of performance studies.Auslander's clear positionin Unmarked-as rvellashis affinity for technological rejectionof Phelan's reproduction-clearly simplifiedthis deconstruction the recoil from technology, of especiallytelevision,on the parl ofperformance artistsand scholars. The second sectkrn the book is more arnbivalent partly because of andconrplicated, Auslander, althougha rock fan, seemsuncomfortable rvith explicitly allying himself with its authenticity. This is true even as he redefines authenticityas producedthrough an on-goingrelationof imitation ("remediation")betweenlive rock perfbrmance and its broadcast recording.It seemsthat. even rvhenauthenticityis understood or as effect, it retainsthe moralizing taint of naivet6. Auslanderwill admit to beingparanoid ratherthannostalgic. While he is quick to deconstruct notion of pure presence the that Phelanseemsto be promoting,he nevettheless in accord rvith her suspicionof mediation as a potential form of is manipulation.He admitsbeing paranoidaboutthe machinationsof the power behind mediato simulatethe authentic. Auslanderpointsto MTV's Unpluggedandalsoto the Milli Vanilli scandal 1990theduo hadtheirGrammy awardtakenarvaywhen (in their lip-synchingwas publicized)as evidencesupportingJeanBauclrillarcl's dark prophecies aboutthe irnminentencroachment simulationon the real.The French of philosopher-prophet found fame,not in his own countrybut in the U.S. culture who (1983) 414 of simulation about which he so often wrote, declaredin Simulatiorrs

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that threatof total assimilation the copy.Auslander, elsewhere the real wasunc'ler by writing more than fifteen yearslater,extendsBaudrillard'sparanoidviewpoint to "lt the point of no reference. would seem that the developmentthat Baudrillard as a fait accompll is actually in the processof occurring." In his astute treats of analysisof the ideologicalunderpinnings the Milli Vanilli scandal, Auslander concludesthat sirnulationitself may rvell be cooptedas a selling strategyby the He powers-that-be. suggests that the legal caseagainstthe duo and the rescinding of the Grammy may have beenonly a simulationof a confrontationbetweenthe of guardians authenticity andthe duo, authenticity's simulators. This confrontation, hyped in the media,was actually a form of reality effect that ultimately supports Power-theporverof mediain a specificsense, the televisionindustry'slegalright as and to control broadcasts. the power of mediain a generalsense. that which can as control peopleandthingsthroughtheir representation. conceivably Compounding "agencyof capital,"Auslander powersinto the abstraction these explains:"[I]t may be that the implosion of the oppositionbetweenlive and mediatised performance in popularmusic . . . was actuallya simulationof implosion createdby an agency of capitalto consolidate and extendits power by recuperating simulation itself as one of itsstrategies."3l This understanding Poweras a dark motive behindappearances pafi and of is parcelof authenticity's idealization an authenticspace non-mediation. of of Power thuspersonilied givesmediathemenacing proporlionsof an unspecified evilthat is at oncethe sameas and greaterthan the corporatemanagers recordcompanies of or even the companiesthemselves. is the intentionaland united force of The It System,the old and familiar monolith of the 1960sLeft. The problem with the notion of The Systemis that it needsro be continually resurrected order for a deconsttuction in like Auslander'sto make sense.It has alwaysseemed me ironic that deconstruction, generallypracticedin the U.S. to as academy, rarely turns a critical eye to its own essentializing perceptionof power. while Denida's philosophicaldeconstructions take a mystical perspective,the more common, derivative type of analysisis rationally oriented in its revelation of the "constructionof reality."Auslander'sLiveness an exampleof this rational is type of analysis, which, althoughextremelywell researched argued, and stiil seems to requirethe resunectionof the idea of an overriding power. SinceAuslanderis also making an argumentthat authenticityis a quality that changes, especiallyin relationto technological innovation,it is hard to imaginethat power, too, doesn't change(splinter,falter, diversify). Yet it would be unfair to judge the whole book as groundedin moralizing paranoia. the most part.it maintainsan objectivetonethat carefully pal-ses For out the constructionof livenessas a historically changingcategory.This fascinating accountof the shifting status-relatior.rships betweenmediaopensthe book beyond the structurallyoriented analysisof the manipulationsof power. Also, pointing

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Journal of Dramatic Theor)' and Criticism

out that younger generationsare less nostalgic fbr live perfbrmanceand more accommodatingtowards mediated experience,Auslander makes room for the determinedand suggestionthat his own viervs on simulation are generati()nally in the historicallyspecific.He describes f r"rture tennsof the moralityof authenticity, by as threatened the insidiouscreepof media culture and its effect on the youllg: 'polver,'theregimeof simulationmay be in full assumes "when this . . . generation into and voidingof therealmsof the socialandthe political may fbrce,its expansion to be complete."tt But he also ref'ers the "nerv paradigm" that is darvning,led by lvhoserelationship mediationis. he says,anxiety free. to the youngestgeneration, about with somefornl of speculation concludes of Almost everychapter Liveness in kids, who Auslanderdescribes one placeas the childrenof first-generation these in Doomed to inauthenticity the eyesof Clapton fans,in other words, of boomers. (assuming which I clo), viervis widespread. Auslander's generation theirparental thosechildren aboutwhom he spokein 1999,norv in high schooland college,are also the ones who rvill fill the shoesof the boomerswhen they retire. Conclusion: Authenticity in an Expanded Field "Now and then it is possibleto observethe moral life in processof revising Trilling'sbook Authentit'irl 1970).-r'r t itself,"wroteLionelTrillingin Sinceritt'tuul French literatureand is about the appearance sincerity in eighteenth-century of development of sincerity. out philosophy,and then,in his orvn time, authenticity's pressures legacy of in The currentdevelopn.rents our moral life. broughton by the to havebeenreferred here advancements otherclranges, and aswell astechnological more accurately as a revival or returnto authenticity. However,"re-performance" repetition conveysthe sense rvhichauthenticity coming back,asa perfotmative is in rather than as a mere reprodrrction. According to Trilling, the authenticityof the 1960s was an intensificationof sincerity's straightfbrwardmorality. I suggest is that the authenticitycurrently being re-performecl not a further purification of representation, a nostalgic and theatricalrepresentation representational of but purity that appealssomewhatdifferently to two generational audiences. groupthat watches MTV's Unplugged The first is, of course, sameboorrrer the for a tasteof the old authentic. acoustic Like the MTV show,re-perforrnance sound. reassertsthe era of performance when live perfbrmance was placed in clear oppositionto media. Yet, because primary medium of re-perfbrmance the is the human body-an object whose presence (yet?) be fully simulatedby cannot any prostheticor imaging technology-the form is not read as simulation but as resurrection. Burton wrote of Lips of Thomas.Abramovi6's Joanna re-performance of her orvn earlier performance, that in its hologram efTectshe felt she saw the youngerAbramovi6 superimposed the older.Her description this effectmade of on it out to be quite poignant.Of course,Abramovii had agedover thirty yearssince the original perfomtance. Her self-reploduction\vas thus both a repetitionand a

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poignant because, remnantor souvenir-a metonymic object nradeall the n.rore photographsand digitized music tracks, it is finite and will eventually unlike Abramovid made herself into an authenticsouvenir of her own past, disappear. photographs taken of the perfomancesrverealso souvenirs, and the documentary only of Abramovi6's past but, consideringher re-peformance selections, of not thepastof a w hol egen e r a t i o n . is The secondaudienceof re-perfbrmance the rising millennial group, for the souvenirhasno pathos. the millennials(alsosometimes For called"echo whom purity from are boomers"),the re-performances lessonsin a practiceof aesthetic In that, in the a memberof their parents'generation. this regardit is noter,vorthy (which amounts of interest herown legacyaswell asin nurturingthenextgeneration Abramovi6hasrecentlyquit teaching orderto starta groupdevoted in to the same), to endurancework. Called The IndependentPerfonnanceGroup, the group's will be the students who havestayedwith her for several years.Onemight members well wonder if this group will remaindevotedto re-performingthe works of their or teacher if they rvill initiate new forms basedon her work, usheringin an era of renewedauthenticity. One might wonder,as well, what that renewedauthenticity would look like-and if Abramovii would evenrecognize as havingany relation it to her teaching. After all, the passage aesthetic of authenticityfrom one generation to the next can only be fraught in a world in which representations multiplying are andbecomingmore realistic,and in which representational devicesare becoming smalleqmore porverful,ubiquitous,and diverse.Representations clearly and that lessclearlyrepresent other representations also creatingever finer distinctions are that will acquire values as yet unassigned. Undoubtedlythe authenticityof the future will be interpretecl recontextualized ways that render it strangeand and in evenillegible to those who launchedtheir careersunderthe bannerof the literal, the nonreproducible, the plain. and Notes
l. Philip Auslander, Liveness: Perlbrmance in tt Mediatiz.et!Culture (London: Routledge, | 999) . 2. Peggy Phelan,IJnnttrked: The Politit:s tyfPcrformant:e (London: Routledge,1993). 3. RoseleeGoldberg, PerJbrma (New York: Perfbrma, 2007) 12. ,1. Marina Abramovi(.,7 Ea.sy Pieces(Milan: Edizioni Charta,2007) 18. 5. One exceptiont() the silencais by performanceartist JosephKeckler, whose contributionto _, the online perfornrance mlgazine Culturelxttis a hilalioLrs reporton SevenEust, Pietes.Hewrites that "someone" in the audienceprotestedthat "[slhe's Marina fiiggin'Abramovii. . . . I wanna see her endur e! w et hought t hat shemi ghtreal l y outdohers el f,uppi ngtheanre... to,may be,gi v i nghers el fa ttver transplant the stage."2 I Nov. 200-5, 6 Jan 2008 <http://culturebot.wordpress.com on I l2005ll1l2l I marrna-Abramov i(-at-the-guggenheim/>. 6. NancySpector, "Marina Abramovif." Guggenheim Museumrvebsite Sep.2007.<http://wrvw. l3 guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist work md_lA-2.html >. 7. Patrice P:rvis."staging Calamity: Mise-en-Scdne and Performanceat Avignon," tr. Joel . Anderson.Theuter -\6.3(2005): 1.1. 8. Roberta Snrith, "Tulning Back the Clock to the Days of CrotchlessPants and a Deceased Rabbit," New York'limeson the Web.l7 Nov. 2005. ll Jan. 2008 <http://nvtimes.com>.

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rev. EnvironmentalThe(tter. ed. (1973; New York: Applause,1994)40. 9. Richard Schechner, s: 10. T h e r e s a S ma le c," No tWh a tltSe e mT h e Po liticso fR e- P erformi ngV i toA cconci 'sS eedbed (1972)," Postmodern Culture \l .I (2006). Project Masz. University of Notre Dame. l5 Feb. 2008 <http://muse.jhu.edu.lib-proxy.nd.edu>. 11. S o m e o f t h e se tr a n scr ip tsa p p e a r in Ab r a m o vii' sbook, TE asyP i eces.rvherei ti sexpl ai ned seventiny microphones were distributedto some that "[e]very night beforeeachperformancestarted, members of the public. T'he rnicrophonespicked up difl-erentconversations the main audience as remajnedunaware"(68). 12. JohannaBurton, "Repeat Performance: JohannaBurton on Marina Abramovii's Seven Easy Pieces,"Artforun International 44.5 (Jan.2006): 55, University of Notre Dame. I 5 Feb. 2008 <http://shakespeare.gale{roup.com>. 13. Smalec."Not What It Seems." 14. Smalec."Not What It Seems." 15. Smith, "Turning Back the Clock." MarinaAbramovii,"New York,5Dec.2005, l2Dec. 2007 16. KarenRosenberg,"Provocateur: <http://nymag.com/ny metro/arts/artl 15228I >. "Provocateur." 17. Rosenberg, I 8. Laurie Anderson,"Marina Abramovii." intervierv, Bon$ 84 (Summer 2003), Feb. 16, 2008 <http://rvww.bombsite.com/issuesI articlesl l>. 256 I 84 I9. Anderson."Marina Abramovi6." 20. Abramovi6, 7 Eusy Pieces 118. 21. Phelan.Unmarked 161. 22. DavidByme,"2.25.07: Marina Abramovii," 25 Feb. 2007, Journal, 1l Jan. 2008 <http:// joumal.davidbyrne.coml200Tlo2l 22507_marina_ab.html>. 23. Marla Carlson,"Marina Abramovii Repeats: Pain, Ar, and Theater."Dec.2005, Hunter >. On-Line TheaterReview,l I Jan.2007 <http://www.hotreview.org/articles/marinaabram.htm 24. Phelan.Unmarked 146. 25. Abramovii. T Eusy Pieces 16. 26. Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The DenaterialiTcttbn ctf the Art Objeu From 1966 to 1972 (Berkeley: U. of Califbrnia P. 1973). 27. JonErickson,"ColdbergVariations:PerforrningDistinctions."PAJ:AJournalofPerformance and Art 21.3 (1999): 98. 28. JanetA. Kaplan,"Deeper and Deeper: Interview with Marina Abramovi6,," Journal 58.2 Art (Summer 1999):6-21, l5 Feb. 2008 <http://findarticles.com>. 29. Auslander,"The Performativityof PerformaDce Documentation,"PAJ 28.3 (2006) 5. 30. Bryan S. Turner and JuneEdmunds,eds.,Garicnttional Consciousness, Narratile, ttnd Politics (Oxford: Rorvman& Littlelield, 2002). 31. Auslander.LivenessllO. 32. l f i . 33. Lionel Trilling. Sincerity and Authenticit.r-(Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1912).