To live as a performance artist is to be the one who, when everyone acts in uniform, mobilizes their potential ahead of others, creates their own actions, and deforms the collective action. Based on our research, we conclude that performance artists retain the most complete gene of contemporary art energy. They treat their life and practice as real happenings. This is their self-imposed regulation on art and life, which often leaves the system at a loss as to how respond – it can neither judge nor release them. Our body is the last resort of subconsciousness and improvisation, as well as the forefront of the sensibility scene. It is the battleground for our transcendental schemas and biological codings, constantly being embodied while being codified.
At the present day, what sort of performance art can offset the weightlessness and absurdity of our big-data life? What are the coordinates of these performance artists on the global contemporary map? What is the performance that contemporary art in 2023 truly desires to present?
Sin Wai Kin, Today’s Top Stories, 2020
Aki Sasamoto, Yield Point, 2017
Dong Jinling, From Depths I Cry, 2019&2020&2021
Ho Ruian, Screen Green，2015–16
