Episode 1: The Essence of Performance

In the inaugural episode of Unbound, hosts Line Ajan and Lisa Long have an introductory conversation about the exhibition “Unbound: Performance as Rupture”, followed by an interview with performance scholar Peggy Phelan about the influential definition of performance delineated in her 1993 seminal book Unmarked. The Politics of Performance. Phelan sheds light on the ethical and political dimensions of performance, and how the documentation and reproduction of performative practices shifts their essence – themes that are also central to the exhibition. This illuminating conversation with Phelan is interspersed with excerpts from another conversation we had with artist peter campus, whose 1973 video Three Transitions is the first artwork encountered by visitors of the exhibition. We end with comments sent to us by journalist Marilena Borriello. Sonic excerpts from Pipilotti Rist’s 1988 video (Entlastungen) Pipi’s Fehler (1988), also on view in the show, resonate with the disruptive power of performance mentioned by Phelan. Hosts and Editors: Line Ajan, Assistant Curator, and Lisa Long, Artistic Director Julia Stoschek Foundation Direction and Editorial: Luise Pilz Producer: Sören Hochberg, Parasomnia Podcast Production Jingles and musical theme: Audio excerpts from works that are part of the exhibition, including mandla and Graham Clayton-Chance’s work as british as a watermelon (2021), Vaginal Davis’s video The White to Be Angry (1999), and Pipilotti Rist’s work (Entlastungen) Pipilottis Fehler (1988). These last two works are also part of the the Julia Stoschek Collection Graphic Design: Bureau Borsche