Anna & Daniel

Hand without a Body - 1999

"Hand without a Body", Performance art by Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 1999


What is the difference between "Performance", "Action Art", "Installation Art" and Video Art?

When the artist or the body of the artist is in focus, so the acting is part of the artwork, it's a performance. When the artist isn't visible but it's still about people and when it's that fast changing in time that you can see the "Beginning" and then "End", than it's "Action Art" (Happaning is kind of outsourced - not directed by a single artist but by many). Installation is when you can't see it "changing" in time, so it looks always the same, or can be at least restored, and when it's about objects.


However even still some installations like "My Breath rests here" ("Hier ruht mein Atem") have some performance character (at least in the creation phase), but than again not really, because than "the painting of a painting" could be also a performance, so it's more about the focus.


A recorded and shown as a video performance, without real life viewer and the interaction with the viewer like "The 30 € truth" or "Crying for this Video" for example is a video. (Definition by Bieniek)

Performance with a branch and styrofoam on the head during the tour of the Berlin University of the Arts.


Some performances and actions by Sebastian Bieniek also have a very cynical character. So here the performance with the title "Intelligenztrainer" from 2000. During the performance the artist wore a hat that was provided with horn-like branches. Around his shoulders he wore an advertising poster for the well-known newspaper P.M., which, among other things, also sells special editions with the title Itelligenztrainer. The issues are filled with crossword puzzles designed to make readers "smarter". During the performance, which took place during the tour of the Universität der Künst in Berlin, Sebastian Bieniek had pulled the intelligence trainer books on a cart behind him and distributed them to the exhibition visitors.



Documentation:

"Intelligence Coach" ("Intelligenztrainer"), Performance art by Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2000

"Intelligence Coach" ("Intelligenztrainer"), Performance art by Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2000

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