The effect of presence: archiving performance art in Ukraine

Why do we need a performance archive? The most characteristic feature of modern life is the lack of stability at the level of identity, which leads to the project of constructing memory in order to construct self-identity. The main reasons for the actualization of this issue in recent years are related to the crisis of identity, the crisis of information, the crisis of tradition and the crisis of memory itself.

An archive is not only a collection of artefacts, it is also a hypothesis about the cultural importance of an object, the construction of collective memory and a complex record of activities. Today, the performance archive in Ukraine is to some extent a collection of what does not exist. Moreover, this is the archive in general: that is, the collection of data, which in themselves do not say anything, is discursively meaningless until the work begins on their reading - interpretation, which gives the artefact's value is always instantaneous, open to new interpretations. In this case, it is important not only what experience is placed in the archive, but how this experience is interpreted at the time of access to the archive.

Can cultural memory be stored without processing and without structuring? Do we have sufficient competencies to focus on the ever-increasing flow of information, which was previously structured by professionals? How to ensure this translation of memory, even though it has lost the features of the organization? What other risks does digital culture pose? But are digital technologies reliable? Can cultural memory be preserved where the only guarantor of its transmission is the quality and durability of the media? These questions arise and will arise for researchers and all concerned.


One of the main difficulties in perpetuating the past, I see, is the inevitable fact that it does not exist. Every memory, when you try to recreate it, becomes the "present past". It is this irrational desire to remember what has disappeared forever that creates a sense of nostalgia that is easy to notice in many aspects of everyday life, and especially in cultural subjects. In order to understand the past / future, it is necessary to turn to the experiences of the subject, which are not purely subjective phenomena, but subjective products of processing the real world. Therefore, expeditions, recordings of interviews with artists and their private memories are especially important in the context of archiving.


Modern society, having developed fundamentally new ways of producing and storing information, has transformed attitudes towards it. The revolutionary nature of what is happening is connected, first, with the possibility of capturing and storing an unlimited amount of information. Thus, a giant data archive is formed, an incredible array of passive collective memory. It is no secret that a large amount of information disappears every moment. Artists did not always have the opportunity or desire to make a video / photo recording of their performances, which is why the most valuable are the stories and memories, in fact, already interpreted by the narrator. The performance archive points to a wide variety of intangible objects that need to be collected and processed, such as feelings and emotions. This is a great feature of archiving performance art, because that's how the "ephemeral archive" is assembled.


If the museum side of the question seems clear, then the archival part seems problematic: in what forms can be expressed and, accordingly, archived "ephemeral", or not quite clear, or does not bring anything fundamentally new. One way or another, archiving is a procedure of collecting tangible and intangible objects for their preservation or collection and for future access to the collected objects. Creating an archive allows you to inscribe the experience of artists in the more general history of the country's cultural community and create their own "history of performance." Thus, historical records made during the expedition allow you to enter previously unaccounted for voices in the historical narrative.

During the expedition, a narrow circle of researchers and artists asked: what can be considered a real performance? Interestingly, the history of performance has long been neglected in the most important studies. Probably because it is not so easy to find a place for him and make it clear. Artists turned to this medium when they were tired of the prevailing framework and traditional artistic methods, when they wanted to address the audience directly. For this reason, performance has always had an anarchic basis. The very nature of performance did not allow for precise or convenient definitions, other than the simple statement that it was a living art performed by artists. A more accurate definition would immediately nullify the very possibility of performance, as it borrows different techniques from different disciplines: literature, painting, music, video, etc.


The term "performance art" has become a generic name used for museum performances, public performances, and even commercial shows at the opening of the 105th ATB under your porch. That is, in my opinion, performance is still indefinable.

Text and illustrations (based on a photo by Denis Vasylyuka from group performances of the expedition Archive: performance art of Ukraine): Anton Karuyk