[-empyre-] performance, site and situation

[De Geuzen <info@geuzen.org>]

Hello all,

Blakkbyrd: Your position is clear and as acknowledged in my previous  
post, we have chosen otherwise.  Also, I saw the NYT article on  
Nettime, and am following the discussion there with interest.

Maybe what could help in opening  this discussion on Empyre,  is  
thinking through performance, its relation to context , and what that  
possibly brings.  I'm thinking here of a few different examples:

Valie Export's Genital Panic:

http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/publications/valie/valietour5.shtml

Or her: Tap and Touch Cinema

http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/publications/valie/valietour3.shtml

Or some of Annie Sprinkle's early tapes where she explores  
transgendered intercourse in the language of porn, while also falling  
uncomfortably out of that register (I could not find a direct link  
but here is one of her more recent projects):

http://loveartlab.ucsc.edu/

Added to this, would be elements of Paris is Burning...  especially,  
the pageantry of blending, or being "real".

There are more...

While these explorations carry with them both cliches and  
conventions, I believe they offer something transformative, if not  
resistant, in their enactment, meaning "being performed" in a  
particular time, amongst a specific group and in a given situation.   
These approaches may even create temporary safety zones to exercise  
and exorcise political/social tensions.   This is also touching on  
the example raised in Tracey's  post.


all the best,

Renee