ABSTRACT
Art theorists and curators emphasize the diversity of stories, media, methods, and results in artistic reenactment at the turn of the century. Besides the photographic and video documentation by artists of popular historical re-staging of battles, art theorists and curators distinguish between two principal categories of artistic reenactment: that of artistic events and that of historical events. The historical events reenacted in art are often events of the 20th century, considered in their traumatic or political dimension and seen as of relevance. The reenactment of art performances, nowadays a staple in museum programing, poses the question of potentialities in a different way. Reenactment is thus part of the debate about the institutionalization of performance art, curatorial strategies this implies, and the historicization of the genre. The relation between performance art and its documentation has been an ongoing debate, shaped by diverging views on the genre’s ephemerality and interactivity, and how these are affected by authorship, commodification, fetishization, and the marketplace.
