Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979 (1998)

“The rise of performance art, and its merging with more traditional forms like painting and sculpture, is the great revolution of post-war art. Its links to theater, photography, music, dance, politics, and popular culture have made it especially appealing to contemporary artists in remote areas; more than any other movement in recent art, performance has found a place throughout the world.

Covering three decades of significant and original art, this book features work by more than one hundred artists from the United States, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Japan who have had a profound impact on the relationship between visual and performance art in the postwar era. Among the artists included are Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, John Cage, Lygia Clark, Yves Klein, Marta Minujin, Bruce Nauman, Helio Oiticica, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint Phalle, Atsuko Tanaka, and Jean Tinguely. Their work encompasses performative objects such as sculpture, artists’ publications, drawings, photographs, and ephemera that come from performances, as well as documentary film and video stills.

Published in conjunction with a major exhibition, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, curated by Paul Schimmel (08.02.1998–10.05.1998), Out of Actions illuminates the unique relationship between action, destruction, performance, and the creative process. Covering an unprecedented range of material, both nationally and temporally, the book offers the first critical comparisons.”

Edited by Paul Schimmel, Russel Ferguson, Kristine Stiles
Publisher Thames and Hudson, 1998
ISBN 9780500280508
407 pages

Review: Beáta Hock (Artpool, n.d.).

PDF (104 MB, no OCR; updated on 2017-7-10)

System.hack() (2006) [Croatian/English]

System.hack() was an exhibition project and a book by Multimedia Institute realized through the collaborative platform Zagreb – Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000.

A moment of excellence in programming is called a hack. A perfect hack is surprising, mediagenic, innovative in employing technology, funny and non-violent. System.hack() is every hack that opens up a closed system or makes an open system dynamic.

System.hack() exhibition seeks to find connections between moments of excellence in different fields of human production. This exploration always has to provide answers to the following two questions: What system is being hacked?, and How this system is being hacked, or what is a specific hack in an individual work?

The exhibition environment is not a gallery, but the interior of a hotel room. The hotel room is supposed to function as the lowest common denominator of living environments users/viewers/visitors/readers inhabit. The hotel room also functions as a Table of Contents for the System.hack() book. Museum labels found on exhibited objects link individual hacks to the essays dealing with issues they raise and social context they intervene in.

Hacks exhibited: Orson Welles – War of the Worlds; Captain Crunch – whistle; Richard Stallman – GNU GPL; Heath Bunting – Superweed Kit 1.0; Michael Steil – Xbox Linux project; CD Protection Kit

Essay contributions by Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Benjamin Mako Hill, Marcell Mars, Tomislav Medak, Ognjen Strpic and Mckenzie Wark.

Original concept and production: Multimedia Institute (mama), Zagreb
Creative assistance: Vuk Ćosić and What, How and For Whom
Creative Commons BY-SA 2.5
96 pages

Exhibition website (at Archive.org)

PDF (updated on 2014-9-14)
Scribd

Juan Downey: El ojo pensante / The Thinking Eye (2010) [Spanish/English]

Catalogue of the exhibition of a US-based Chilean pioneer video artist. During his career Downey created an extensive body of work that also includes electronic and video sculptures, photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, performance, installation and writing.

Curated by Julieta Gonzalez
Co-curated and Edited by Marilys Belt de Downey
Texts by Carla Macchiavello, Valerie Smith, Julieta Gonzalez, Nicolas Guagnini
227 pages

Exhibition website
Wikipedia

PDF (English section pp 173-217; 4 MB, updated on 2014-9-14)