CONVERGENCE OF PERFORMANCE ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND ARCHIVAL PRACTICES

Abstract

This article explores the intricate relationships between ephemeral, performative actions, their visual documentation, and their preservation within institutional and personal archives. The author will identify key archives and data repositories that contemporary art historians can access to explore this cultural heritage further. Through this dual approach – historical analysis and archival exploration/mapping – the article aims to enrich the study of genealogy of performance art in Latvia and open new pathways for understanding its formative years.

One of the key goals is to challenge and broaden the accepted timeline of performance art’s origins in Latvia. While the history has traditionally been dated to the 1970s with artists like Andris Grinbergs and his contemporaries, the author argues that its roots can be traced back to the 1960s by examining the experimental work of photographers such as Gunārs Binde and Zenta Dzividzinska. These artists engaged with photography not only as a medium of representation but also as a performative process in its own right. Such early experiments, though often overlooked, suggest a more nuanced genealogy of Latvian performance art, one that is deeply interwoven with the medium of photography. Moreover, a theoretical framework will be developed to analyse the reciprocal influence between performance art and photography.