Ownership of Performance: Reshaping museum’s collections

Performance in its own definition is ephemeral and constrained within a time and a space, in which an experience is created for a specific audience that are also contained within that same time and space. Regardless, it can still be documented with photography, videos, choreographic notes and other datasets. Its structural component and records have questioned the difference between experimental theater and visual arts, as the medium has been playing a huge part within visual contemporary culture. (Wood, 2018) Its ephemeral nature and history has blurred lines in the meaning of ownership and collections within an institutional museum structure. As much as it is important to “collect” those different datasets that form the documentation of a performance, it is vital to be wary over the terminologies that museums use when it comes to the ownership of a performance.

Which begs to question the infrastructure of museums collections and their notions of ownership. This examination arises frequently when there is discussion over bodily practice and ephemerality. In this paper, a critical view is considered between the definition of ownership and its position to collection, acquisition and legal rights. Three case studies are made in order to understand the different infrastructures that museums (Walker Art Center), performance spaces (Tanzquartier Wien) and auction houses (Marina Abramović sales at Christy’s) follow. The conversation leads to the appeal of whom is the ownership going to be beneficial? The artist or the institution? And how are collections between theaters and museums fundamentally different?

Looking at the terms and conditions of those different cases has a significant meaning in what ought to be documented and owned for performance – obviously that holds a monetary value or if it beyond those values. Performance calls into question the idea of ownership and this research is merely a small contribution towards recognizing the importance of documentation and ownership while still questioning the contemporary perception of museums infrastructures and object-based values.

This paper was presented on September 08, 2020 at the DocPerform 4 symposium as part of the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) conference Situating Digital Curation.