Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin by Olivia Landry

Abstract

artists: Kaprow in the United States, Wolf Vostell in Europe, and Minujín in Argentina. A sociological survey produced by Minujín as part of this project captures the interests at the core of Spencer’s book: the experimentation with communication technologies and how technology-facilitated relations may enable individuals to disrupt their habits and introduce new connections. Drawing from cybernetics and system theory, the form of communication that the author and the studied artists are concerned with is holistic, integral, interrelated, and interconnected. Such an understanding of interrelation is especially beneficial since it problematises the geographical and corporeal boundaries that determine individual perspectives. Furthermore, through the analysis of Minujín, Schneemann, and Lublin, in particular, the author reflects on the challenges experienced especially by many women and artists of colour, acknowledging barriers for participation during the 1960s and 1970s and highlighting how these power imbalances persist more than fifty years later. Opportunities for further development include the author’s brief criticism of the trajectories of community engagement in art. The approaches to experimental open classrooms and radical pedagogy that Kaprow presented were well received and enjoyed by students, teachers, and parents. Yet, once the project was finished and the series Six Ordinary Happenings had been completed, the artist concluded his engagement with the community that had provided him with material and enthusiasm. As Spencer recognises, instances such as these invite further reflection on the circulation of knowledge and its vectors. Beyond the Happening is an insightful and enjoyable contribution to the study of art and communication with a fresh international approach. The book’s outstanding illustrations make it a valuable archive piece for thought-provoking yet often overlooked artwork. One of its triumphs is how it introduces an array of international works that, incorporating models developed during Happenings, contributed to the study of verbal and non-verbal interrelations in an array of contexts. These methods underline the interconnectivity proposed by the book’s main themes. In the conclusion, Spencer studies re-performances, an ever-thought-provoking issue in the study of performance art. She examines Otobong Nkanga’s Baggage, a 2007 reinvention of Kaprow’s 1972 iconic work of the same name, which exposes questions that were absent in the first deployment of the piece. Spencer emphasises that Nkanga’s re-performance makes evident the unavoidability of supervisory conditions that apply to communicational exchanges and the policing they entail for racialised and gendered bodies. Beyond the Happening: Performance Art and the Politics of Communication prompts the reader to evaluate one’s ‘imbrication’ in the structures that surround and police communication and interconnectedness (234). These structures and the constraints of material borders, closely linked to the limits and possibilities of technology, are especially pertinent to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of remote communication, which multiplies the relevance of this book and the works it examines in unforeseen ways.