Richard Martel's 'L'art dans l'action / L'action dans l'art' Published by Inter éditeur

Richard Martel, a Quebecois performance artist and scholar, has released a new book titled 'L'art dans l'action / L'action dans l'art' through Inter éditeur. The work collects essays originally published between 2002 and 2012 in the journal Inter, which Martel founded and edits. Known for his militant advocacy of art as event, Martel aligns with the Dada and Fluxus traditions. He is a noted exegete of Robert Filliou and has tracked performance art globally, with a focus on peripheral expressions. His earlier anthology 'L'Art Action' (published a decade prior) opened up an unprecedented repertoire, particularly from Eastern European countries before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The new volume is lighter and more theoretical, arguing that art is directly connected to immediate life, serving as a desacralized cousin of religion, an energy catalyst, a behavioral revealer, a social celebration, and a gathering point for people sharing context, era, and struggles. Martel is less interested in making art where it already exists (museums) than in expanding the territory of creation in a self-managed mode. This 'spontex' approach, inherited from situationism and the 'provo' spirit, benefits from poetic speech in the lettrist tradition. Martel conceives the artist as a preacher combining significant gesture with demonstrative and fiery speech, the ultimate aed after Homer. The book includes a preface by Paul Ardenne.