Turning Theatre into Art

The word “theatre” during the past fifty years has often been used in the art world to denote something detestable, to be avoided at all cost. In the performance art tradition in particular, theatre was condemned because of its base and politically suspect narrative inclination and its inauthenticity. Theatre meant rehearsing, repeat performances, and the use of trained actors, while performance prided itself on the rigorous focus on the identity and the “live” and “present” body of the performer/artist as the hallmark of its truth. As Marina Abramovic once said, “The spontaneity, which is an important factor in our work, comes about because we do not rehearse or repeat a performance.” Now, however, some visual artists are using theatre in flagrant disregard of the reigning ideology. They employ the processes of theatre in the creation of their work and even as its conceptual end product. They are unafraid of the dramaturgical idea of character, the written text, professionally trained performers, and rehearsal. On April 20, 2011, Pablo Helguera, Ohad Meromi, and Xaviera Simmons joined moderator Paul David Young for a public discussion at Location One in New York City to discuss the engagement in their work with the idea of theatre and the evolution of the performance aesthetic.