[TISEA 1992] Artist Statement: Yuji Sone – Nonetheless Marinetti

Artist Statement

Performance

It seems to be the accepted theory that the prehistory of Performance Art in this century began when the first FUTURIST manifesto was published in 1909 by Filippo Tommasso Marinetti. The main concept of the writing was to attack the establishment value of the arts in that time. The movement created art works negating the limit and boundary of the old art concept. 80 years later, having seen Dada, Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, Happenings, Events, and Fluxus, the core concept of the 1990’s Performance Art somehow still seems to resemble that of Futurism. Should we, performance artists in the 1990’s, be criticised as repeaters?

or,
Should we blame societies which always have narrow sectionalism, or which only reluctantly allow interdisciplinary/inter-cultural discipline? (Do inter-cultural practices exist without leaning against the stronger culture?) It could be said that one of the functions of performance art has been working as anti-thesis. In the unstable, uncertain situation (as always) of the 1990’s Performance Art, being empowered by electric technology, will survive as a tool to resist exclusionism, closedness, and conservatism.

  • Yuji Sone, Japan/Australia