Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series featuring Lauren Hinkson

Live performance art has a long history in artistic practice and has recently been catalyzed as a medium within the art market as it is acquired by private and public art collections. This lecture will explore the emergent practice of collecting and conserving live performance art. It will analyze how museums endeavor to confront the paradox of producing a “stable object” that can be conserved, documented and legally "owned" without risking the integrity of an artwork that in its nature is ephemeral, live and has qualities that are spontaneously produced. Addressing the methodological and institutional challenges of preserving inherently ephemeral work, the lecture would address a series of case studies of work by contemporary artists Tania Bruguera, Roman Ondak and Tino Sehgal among others.