Education in Norway and Europe

Performance Art practice has from its outset questioned the idea of the clear denotation of text belonging to theater, the object to visual art, sound to music, space to architecture and the body to dance and rather set the artists’ body and self at the center of artistic investigation. In this way it spans different, new sets of relationships and associations. This also broke ground for cultural and artistic practices and debates encompassing notions of the embodied Otherness such as that of Queer, Feminism, Ethnicity and the Global/Local amongst others. Even though Performance art had its roots in the visual arts, it crossed the lines to performing arts such as theater, music and dance and encompassed practices more connected to TV and media or ritualistic/religious cultural practices. Over the last twenty years these artistic practices have become ever more interdisciplinary and cross-referential.

When looking for an education in the field in Norway, the most appropriate destinations remain the Fine Art departments of art colleges. Here hybrid and interdisciplinary practices are well established. However, true to international tendencies, Performance Art in Norway had its beginnings outside of established educational institutions and never really made its way inside. From the seventies onwards it was “free theatre” groups and those emerging from theatre departments and practice such as BAK-truppen, Verdensteateret and Kate Pendry, who discovered and utilized Performance Art practice. Their work is usually more closely associated with visual and text-based theater rather than the body centered practice of work of Kurt Johannessen, Rita Marhaug, GM Salong, Eivind Orlando. Following their ideas, these artists have chosen to place physical aspects, timing and location at the core of their work. They were trained as visual artists, however none of them have had formal education in the field of Performance Art. In the context of the Art Academy it remains a contested field of practice, where the unspoken argument is often it’s alien to practices of painting, drawing, installation, video etc. and too closely related to theater studies, dance or education in drama. Reluctance to introduce formal study programs in Performance Art may also be due to the perceived out-datedness of the field following the demise of most Feminist Art practices, Fluxus/Happening and Co.

Performance and Performativity

The reluctance to name Performance Art as one of the focal areas in Art Colleges however, does not take into account fundamental changes in all of today’s areas of cultural production and reflection. Perfomativity has become one of the key terms of contemporary cultural and esthetical practice, highly profiling practices as diverse as those of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Cindy Sherman, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Forced Entertainment, Elmgreen/Dragseth amongst many others. Performativity in all its implications has also been much discussed in theoretical writing ) and might well be used to point to the urgency of instilling a more positive attitude in Art Colleges, towards implementing practical and theoretical programs addressing the ubiquitous presence of acts of performativity in contemporary society as found throughout art, media, TV and generally speaking all contemporary culture. Awareness and training in acts of performativity could be helpful to the student in terms of conceiving and understanding the artwork itself. It could also lead to improving the artists’ understanding of their own presence on the art ”scene”, as has been amply demonstrated by well-constructed artist types throughout time (Oscar Wilde, Joseph Beuys, Orlan) and still professed today. Art Colleges today are requested to play a much bigger role than merely in the education of artists. They are assigned the critical role of adding a surplus of culture and meaning to a consumers’ media society. This role goes way beyond that of the education of yesterday’s entertaining artist geniuses and jesters and rather promotes a critical attitude towards society – even if the corresponding study programs that could contribute to professionalization of artistic production in that field haven’t yet been established.

The Situation in Norway

As of 2008 there is no institution of higher education in Art in Norway offering a degree in Performance Art. In April 2007 a first attempt to establish a joint international Nordic Masters of Live Arts program was initiated by the University of Gothenburg (GU), the Iceland Academy of Arts (LHI) and Akademi for Scenekunst Fredrikstad (HIØ) but was rejected. The Iceland Academy of Arts is now planning to launch a national program but it remains to be seen whether the idea of a joint Nordic international MA in Live Art will be pursued in the future.

Akademi for Scenekunst (formerly Fredrikstad Figurteaterskolen) is built upon the two related and closely interacting lines of study BA Acting and BA Scenography, which might also accommodate Performance Art practice to a certain degree. “The aim is to train specialized theatre artists who can combine skills, knowledge and methods from conceptual visual art with skills, techniques and methods from contemporary theatre and performance.” (From the website) As Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk, the director of the Acting Line at Fredrikstad puts it: “What is an actor? We stretch the idea of what an actor is today and work with the development of the concept of a performance”.

Geir Tore Holm of the newly established Art Academy at Høgskolen i Tromsø says that while the school’s aim is to enable students “to act in certain situations and actively expose themselves to the public”, as well as to “stage situations”, however Performance Art as such does not play a fundamental role in the study program of the Academy, which aims to promote artistic practice and discuss its role within the social and ecological conditions of society.

The Art Academy at the Faculty of Architecture and Visual Arts of the University of Trondheim names painting, sculpting, intermediate practice, graphic / photography and theory as departments within their BA studies, allowing however for open studies across the media. At the MA level, Christel Sverre, leader of the MA study program, confirms that the study plan does not focus on certain artistic media. The “interdisciplinary focus” of the studies is covered by the respective professors’ interest in holding workshops or teaching in for example Performance Art at NTNU.

Kunsthøgskolen in Oslo offers a variety of different degrees in both stage and visual arts, such as two different sets of BA and MA degrees in the Visual Arts as well as an MA Choreography, a BA in Modern and Contemporary Dance, a BA in Scenography and a BA in Acting. Performance Art practice is not mentioned in any of the information provided on the variety of study programs on the website of KHIO.

At Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen performance is indicated in the study plan of the BA in Visual Arts at the Academy. It is listed as a possible choice of media in the general description as well as for second and third year study projects. Performance is also listed as a possible focus of the individual students’ study project at MA level. Relevant performances as well as practical workshops and lectures are arranged to highlight the complex relationship that live art, theater and visual arts share. Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen has in the last five to ten years cooperated with Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen Internasjonal Teater, the University of Bergen as well as other Academies (Akademi for Scenekunst, University of Applied Arts Vienna). KHIB students use “Prøverømmet”, the “Dressing Room” event arranged twice a month at BIT, to actively try out their ideas regarding performance and art, and Teatergarasjen has generously let KHIB use the space for several workshops.

Studies Outside of the Nordic Countries

Marina Abramovic "Cleaning the House" 2005. Abramovic teaches at the Braunschweig university in Germany and holds regular workshops. She introduces her students to the course and the space they are in by the act of cleaning the room. (com ed)

In other European countries there are institutions where degrees in Performance Art in the widest sense can be achieved. From 2005 on the University of Hamburg started offering an MA in Performance Studies built on theory, artistic practice and esthetical education in performance, theater, dance and movement. The studies focus on the body-oriented aspects of art, theater (dance, experimental), pop culture, media and everyday life (sport, youth culture, rituals). See http://www.performance.uni-hamburg.de/index_1.html

Also in Germany The Applied Theatre Studies (Drama Theatre Media) Department at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen stands out “due to its combination of practice and theory. The main interest is in theatrical research as well on a scientific as on a theatrical-practical basis. The study is composed of theoretical seminars and lectures and of practical courses and performance projects under the baton of guest professors and assigned teachers coming from theatrical practice.”(Quote from the website) Over the last twenty-five years in Germany the institute has been at the forefront of the development of contemporary forms of theatrical expression and performance as well as the theory and academic reflection around it, especially addressing and re-examining the relationship of text, sound, body, movement and visuals. Companies such as Showcase Beat Le Mot, Rimini Protokoll and SheShePop studied in Giessen.
http://www.uni-giessen.de/theater/index.php?js=ein&code=a3%7Cb01&L=e

Studies in dance and performance can also be undertaken at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels, Belgium. As from 1995 the National Opera Monnaie and the Brussels based dance company Rosas started PARTS with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker as director. This is a four-year course of two two-year cycles: the first focusing on training and the second on research. During the two-year “Training Cycle” the students work on the technical foundation of contemporary dance, body awareness according to PARTS as well as theatre, music and theoretical reflection. In the “Research Cycle” the students can go into depth in their studies and focus on personal creative work. The admission is to one cycle at a time and a second entry exam needs to be given for the research cycle. For more information check: http://www.parts.be/Parts/index.html

The University of Bristol newly started up a MA program in Performance Research. This “offers students opportunities to further their interest in a range of critical, conceptual and practical issues surrounding performance, as part of a lively and growing cohort of postgraduate students working across performance and screen media both critically and practically.” (From the website). Check http://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/postgrad/mapr/
At Aberystwyth University in Wales a BA in Performance Studies as a joint honors degree with Drama and TV/Media studies is offered. The studies focus on physical theatre, group work, devised performance, site-specific work as well as time-based art. See http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/prospectus/courses/tfts-perf.php

Outlook

While the public universities and colleges mentioned above, as well as some private institutions like Prosjektskolen Oslo, Kunst- und Filmskolen Nordland, Kunstskolen i Rogaland or free theatre groups like Grenland Friteater, Stella Polaris and Kunstbanken i Hedmark offer courses, activities and resources in Performance Art, there is no consistent program on higher level education in Norway offering a degree in Live Art as such. Given the growing importance of culture in society as well as the urgency and relevance of a critical debate on increasing performativity in general: It would be of great value to establish a study program at MA level to take up these issues. A specialized education encompassing theoretical and practical aspects at advanced level, would both be instrumental in the development of the field and enhance the artists’ conceptual and practical work, and not least, their public and international standing.

Readings on performance and performativity include:
Allan Kaprow: The Blurring of Art and Life
Erika Fischer-Lichte: Auf dem Weg zu einer performativen Kultur
Judith Butler: Performative Acts and Constitution of Gender: An essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory
Umberto Eco: Semiotics of Theatricality
Victor Turner: Dramatic Ritual - Ritual Drama: Performative and Reflexive Anthropology
Guy Debord: The Society of the Spectacle
John L. Austin: How to Do Things with Words
Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative.
Miglietti, Francesca: Extreme Bodies
Jones, Amelia: Body Art/ Performing the Subject
Styles, Kristin; Schimmel,Paul et al: Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object
Goffman, Erving: Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience

EDITOR: Anne-Marte Eidseth Rygh