Richard Martel's 'Art Action 1958-1998' Published by Éditions Intervention

Éditions Intervention / Diffusion Nèpe has published 'Richard Martel, Art Action 1958-1998', a book that transcribes and expands an international symposium held in Quebec City, Canada, in October 1998. Organized by Richard Martel, the symposium featured participants including Pierre Restany, Jean-Jacques Lebel (happening), Dick Higgins and Charles Dreyfus (Fluxus), Esther Ferrer (Zaj), Jacques Donguy (body art), Julien Blaine (action poetry), Danièle Roussel (Viennese Actionism), and representatives from 21 geographic zones. The book follows the exhibition catalogues 'Hors Limites' at Centre Pompidou (now out of print) and 'Out of Actions' in Los Angeles (in English). In his preface, Martel references Giordano Bruno, Antonin Artaud, and the Situationists, and criticizes Roselee Goldberg's 'Performance' (recently translated into French) for what he sees as an American rewriting of art history. He argues that artists like the Kipper Kids, Paul McCarthy, and Mike Kelley borrow from Viennese Actionists, who went further and earlier. The book covers phenomena such as happening, Fluxus, Intermedia, Zaj, body art, action poetry, Actionism, performance, and Arte Accion, illustrating the 'passage from art as object to art as event'. Printed on sepia paper, it offers a non-American perspective on action art in the second half of the 20th century. The book is dedicated to Dick Higgins, who died on the last day of the symposium in Quebec.