Dance and Performance Documentation in the space of a Museum of modern art. The case of «Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done» show
Abstract
In the Fall of 2018, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) hosted the exhibition “Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done”. The show was devoted to the study of the phenomenon of Judson Dance Theater and various aspects of its artistic heritage. Representatives of the Judson school worked primarily within the framework of temporary art: happenings and performances, so the attempt to represent the Judson Theater as an artistic phenomenon in the Museum space is inextricably linked with the need to objectify its creative legacy, which, in turn, raises the problem of documentation.
Dance and performance exist as an autonomous art form only at the moment of direct performance. The process of creating these works can be reconstructed by the means of material artefacts, which means that the theme of the exhibition exists only in mediated forms, such as photography, films, visual and musical scores, archival documents, notes and/or interviews of group members. From this perspective, the format of the exhibition itself contradicts the paradigm within which these works were created. For the participants of the Judson Theater, the creative process was important, not the production of the final artistic product.
How can one imagine temporary art in the context of a Museum that was originally intended for storing and displaying art objects that have certain physical characteristics? How does the process of documenting performance affect the position of this art form in the narrative of Art History, and how does it affect Museum policy? We think that the analysis of the exhibition will allow us to reconsider the attitude to the subject of art exclusively as an object, and also allow us to think about new forms of archiving in the Museum space, which are directly related to the physical presence of the viewer.
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