The Personal Becomes Political, 1972 to Now: Women, Sex and Performance Art in a Changing Political, Economic and Aesthetic Climate.

Performance art and body art:
both are in once again. An appropriate moment to look back at the emergence of
performance art. A look back to better see the future (aka The History of the
Future). One of the avant-garde centres that played a pivotal role in the
emergence and development of performance art is undoubtedly New York’s
internationally renowned Franklin Furnace.
“It all started in 1976, when I
saw that major institutions were not accommodating works of art being published
by artists, and decided to gather, exhibit, and sell, preserve and proselytise
on behalf of the form that came to be known as artists’ books. I opened
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. in my living loft on April 3rd, 1976….Franklin Furnace’s
presentation of temporary installation work and what came to be known as
performance art started right from the getgo. The artists who were publishing
artists’ books were the same ones who considered the text to be a visual art
medium (Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger come to mind). Martine Aballea, whose
book was in Franklin Furnace’s collection, asked if she could read it in our
storefront in June, 1976. When she showed up in costume, with her own lamp and
stool, the performance art program was born. Although I called it ‘Artists’
Readings’ in the beginning, every artist chose to manipulate the performance
elements of text, image and time: from a very simple 1977 performance by Robert
Wilson of the word ‘there’ repeated 144 times with a chair on stage, to the
more messy 1983 performance of Karen Finley taking a bath in a suitcase and
making love to a chair with Wesson oil.” 
(From: The Whys of Deinstitutionalization by Martha Wilson, Franklin
Furnace Founding Director)
Among those artists who were given
the opportunity to mount their first New York shows at Franklin Furnace are Ida
Applebroog, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Dara Birnbaum, Matt Mullican, James
Coleman, Krysztof Wodiczko, Guillaume Bijl, and Willie Cole. Among the
performers who got their start here are Eric Bogosian, Guillermo Gomez-Pena,
Robbie McCauley, Michael Smith, Theodora Skipitares, Paul Zaloom, David Cale,
and Karen Finley. Additionally, Franklin Furnace’s performance art program has
enabled more established artists like Laurie Anderson, Vito Acconci, Richard
Foreman, Carl Andre, Lee Breuer, William Wegman, and Jennifer Bartlett to
experiment in ways that would be inappropriate for mainstream venues that
attract larger audiences.
Over the years Franklin Furnace —
as well as the artists’ work — has been transformed several times. In her
lecture, Martha Wilson looks back over two decades of performance art, and
indicates how it has changed cultural discourse. A lecture, illustrated with
historical footage, on women, sex and performance art in a drastically changing
political, economic and aesthetic climate.

In collaboration
with Galerija Kapelica, ŠOU Ljubljana.