Disappearing object?

The Live Art Almanac Volume 3 brings together various genres of texts written on live art in 2011 and 2012. The systematisation of chapters is telling since we are introduced into the book by a selection of contributions on the relation between live art and institutions which, based on works by artists such as Marina Abramović, Tino Sehgal and La Ribot, show the ambivalence of the modern age torn between the tendency to preserve and materialise the transient and the tendency towards constant continued movement. The Almanac continues with a chapter on performance art in mass media and pop culture. It thus raises the question of the influence of capitalism on performance art since the constant attempts at objectivizing disappearing events coincide with the predominating consumerist mentality of the West. This chapter is followed by a series of discussions on politically engaged art that trace the difference between performance in the West and performance in former colonies. The Almanac concludes its dramaturgical arch with essays on death rituals, thus opening the question of the “survival” of the live in the age of consumer products. The Live Art Almanac 3 is a sort of an archive of live art that offers the reader material for further research and thus, in accordance with the Western archive fever, builds the foundations for new beginnings.