Performing the East: Performance Art in Russia, Latvia and Poland since 1980
Amy Bryzgel's book 'Performing the East' examines performance art in Russia, Latvia, and Poland from 1980 onward, focusing on how artists navigated post-socialist transitions. The book covers Sergei Bugaev (Afrika) and Oleg Kulik in Russia, Miervaldis Polis and Gintz Gabrāns in Latvia, and Zbigniew Libera and Katarzyna Kozyra in Poland. Bryzgel argues that performance art served as both agent and chronicle of the shift from Soviet rule to free-market democracies. The review critiques Bryzgel's reliance on a Western interpretative framework, noting that she works within the East-West binary rather than dismantling it, and questions whether the time has come for Western-centric titles like 'Performing the West.'
Key facts
- Amy Bryzgel's 'Performing the East' was published in 2013 by I.B. Tauris.
- The book covers performance art in Russia, Latvia, and Poland since 1980.
- Sergei Bugaev (Afrika) and Oleg Kulik are featured in a chapter on Russia.
- Bugaev entered Vera Mukhina's 'Worker and Kolkhoz Woman' statue in 1990.
- Bugaev had himself committed to a psychiatric hospital in Simferopol, Crimea, in 1993.
- Miervaldis Polis performed as the 'Bronze Man' on the streets of Riga in the 1990s.
- Polis participated in an 'International Summit of Phantoms' in Helsinki with Roi Vaara.
- Gintz Gabrāns' Starix project propelled a homeless man to reality-TV stardom from 2000-2004.
- Zbigniew Libera created 'Intimate Rituals' (1984) and 'Lego. Concentration Camp' (1996).
- Katarzyna Kozyra represented Poland at the Venice Biennale with a video of a men's bathhouse in Budapest.
- Bryzgel argues that Polish critical artists were better off in the 1980s than the 1990s.
- The review criticizes Bryzgel for using a Western framework and not including global contemporaries like Santiago Sierra or Tania Bruguera.
Entities
Artists
- Amy Bryzgel
- Sergei Bugaev (Afrika)
- Oleg Kulik
- Miervaldis Polis
- Gintz Gabrāns
- Roi Vaara (White Man)
- Zbigniew Libera
- Katarzyna Kozyra
- Vera Mukhina
- John Cage
- RoseLee Goldberg
- Santiago Sierra
- Tania Bruguera
- Francis Alÿs
- Bruce Nauman
- Carolee Schneeman
- Vito Acconci
- Boris Buden
- Magdalena Ujma
Institutions
- I.B. Tauris
- Republican Psychiatric Hospital no. 1 in Simferopol
- Venice Biennale
- Gellert Baths
- Catholic Church in Poland
Locations
- Russia
- Latvia
- Poland
- USSR
- London
- New York
- Simferopol
- Crimea
- Riga
- Finland
- Helsinki
- Budapest
- Leningrad
- Western Europe
- North America