ABSTRACT
The chapter illustrates the methodologies employed by the research network Performance Chronicle Basel––of which the author is a founding member––to reconstruct the history of performance art in Basel, Switzerland. Special attention was paid by the project to the investigation of feminist, queer and activist practices and works, previously excluded from the historiography of performance art in Switzerland. In order to trace and record this history, the project adopted the concept of “communicative memory,” as defined by Jan Assmann, and developed innovative strategies to capture this living, embodied memory through the use of oral history, video-recorded interviews and the analysis of archival documents and sources. After discussing the theoretical–methodological framework of the project, the chapter focuses on two case studies, namely, Alex Silber’s early performance art and the production Damengöttinnen am Äquator, which were researched by the network, showing through them in an exemplary manner the approach and results generated by the project.
