The group exhibition Unbound: Performance as Rupture examines how different generations of artists have called upon the body in relation to the camera to refuse oppressive ideologies, disrupt historical narratives, and unsettle concepts of identity. Setting works from the Julia Stoschek Collection in dialogue with loans, the exhibition traces various intersections of performance and video art from the late 1960s to today, focusing on how they create specific forms of rupture, fracture, and pause.
In contrast to Peggy Phelan’s definition of performance as a live art characterized by its immediate disappearance, Unbound centers the use of the camera and its apparatus to record and direct the performance itself. By willfully conflating the presence of performance and the virtuality of the image, the artists question a fundamental paradox—or representational gap—between the performing subject, whose complex identity can never be depicted fully, and the camera as a violent tool that tries to capture, contain, and classify them. Many of these works expose and negate the colonial gaze perpetuated by the camera, while simultaneously utilizing time-based technologies, in order to create otherwise impossible connections across spaces and temporalities. In addition to performance documentation and performance-for-the-camera, the exhibited artworks offer investigations into contemporary image economies that draw attention to how bodies move through or evade physical and digital spaces.
Performance introduced a rupture in the Western understanding of art in the mid-twentieth century by obscuring the distinction between art object, artist, and action. This unbinding of art through the body and vice versa drives the diverse approaches of the works on view. Around the same time, the emergence of video technology also marked a decisive shift in the way we record, playback, edit, and present moving images—a shift that connects early experiments in video to our contemporary usage of images in social media and beyond. Taking these histories into account, historical works by Eleanor Antin, Peter Campus, VALIE EXPORT, Sanja Iveković, Ulysses Jenkins, Joan Jonas, Senga Nengudi, Lutz Mommartz, Howardena Pindell, Pope.L, and Katharina Sieverding will speak to those of a younger generation, including Panteha Abareshi, Ufuoma Essi, Shuruq Harb, Tarek Lakhrissi, mandla & Graham Clayton-Chance, Lydia Ourahmane, Sondra Perry, Akeem Smith, and P. Staff, among others.
Unbound: Performance as Rupture will be accompanied by a publication comprising an introduction and short texts about each artwork in relation to the themes of the exhibition (complimentary upon admission). There will also be a public program of talks and screenings, and a podcast to expand on the exhibition’s ideas and absences.
Curator: Lisa Long
Assistant Curator: Line Ajan
Artist List
Panteha Abareshi, Eleanor Antin, Salim Bayri, Nao Bustamante, Matt Calderwood, Peter Campus, Patty Chang, Julien Creuzet, Vaginal Davis, Ufuoma Essi, VALIE EXPORT, Cao Guimarães, Shuruq Harb, Sanja Iveković, Ulysses Jenkins, Joan Jonas, Stanya Kahn, Tarek Lakhrissi, Klara Lidén, mandla & Graham Clayton-Chance, Lutz Mommartz, Senga Nengudi, Mame-Diarra Niang, Lydia Ourahmane, Christelle Oyiri, P. Staff, Manfred Pernice, Sondra Perry, Howardena Pindell, Pope.L, Pipilotti Rist, Katharina Sieverding, Akeem Smith, Gwenn Thomas
About the Julia Stoschek Foundation
The JULIA STOSCHEK FOUNDATION is a non-profit organization dedicated to the public presentation, advancement, conservation, and scholarship of time-based art. With two public exhibition spaces located in Berlin and Düsseldorf that feature cutting-edge media and performance practices, the foundation stewards one of the world’s most comprehensive private collections of time-based art. With over 900 artworks by 300 artists from around the globe, the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION spans video, film, single- and multi-channel moving image installation, multimedia environments, performance, sound, and virtual reality. Photography, sculpture, and painting supplement its time-based emphasis. The collection’s contemporary focus is rooted in artists’ moving image experiments from the 1960s and ’70s.
General Information
OPENING HOURS: Saturday and Sunday, 12–6 P.M. SPECIAL
OPENING HOURS DURING BERLIN ART WEEK 14–17 September: 12–6 P.M.
ADMISSION: 5 Euro
BARRIER-FREE ACCESS: The exhibition UNBOUND takes place on the first floor and the second floor of the Julia Stoschek Foundation Berlin. Access to the upper floor is not barrier-free. For visits with wheelchairs or strollers, please register in advance via visit.berlin@jsfoundation.art to ensure access.
GUIDED TOUR IN GERMAN: Sundays, 3 P.M.
GUIDED TOUR IN ENGLISH: Saturdays, 3 P.M. Register at www.jsfoundation.art
GUIDED TOURS FOR GROUPS: Price: EUR 20.00 per person for groups of 10 people or more (including admission fee). Tours for students and school pupils are free of charge. Please inquire for guided tours for groups by email at visit.berlin@jsfoundation.art.