Performing Freedom: Yugoslavian Performance Art as a Form of Political Protest

Neja Kaiser | Performing Freedom: Yugoslavian Performance Art as a Form of Political Protest | University of Groningen, The Department of History of Art, Architecture & Landscape | Promotor: Prof. S. M. Strandvad | Supervisors: Dr. T. Lijster, Dr. M. Van Tilburg | 01 September 2021 – 31 August 2025 | n.kaiser[at]rug.nl

In recent decades, the field of performance has been receiving more and more attention within the art historical context. Yet not enough if we think of Yugoslavian performance art that has been almost completely excluded from mainstream histories of performance art as well as from histories of modern and/or contemporary art. Performing Freedom is not intended to be an all-inclusive overview of the performance art in Yugoslavia. It also does not seek to provide a precise description of the chronological development of performance art in the region. Instead, it i) brings together a collection of first-hand accounts and interviews followed by an in-depth analysis of a range of cases of performance art works created as a form of political protest, including Bálint Szombathy’s early performance/action Lenin in Budapest (1972), which you can see in the photograph below, ii) aims to advance the understanding of how art and politics are entangled in practice and, consequently,  iii) wishes to contribute to a better understanding of performance art of the late 20th century per se.