Philosophica 30, 1982 (2). pp. 61-74.

61

FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE

Tadeusz Pawlowski

Differences and Similarities

The presence of the artist who in front of an audience perso-

nally carries out some actions is a feature shared by both manifes-
tations of contemporary art mentioned in the little, and at the same.
time one of their important constitutive characters. There are more
such common features; also, performance co-existed for some time
together with happening, pushing it out gradually from the scene of
world-art. In the face of such similarities and connections the more
surprising are the essential differences which separate performance
from happening. These differences refer to basic aims and functions
as well as to artistic means used to realize them. Happeners strived to
change the world: to make more humane the existing framework of
social life; to abolish authoritarian conventic-~~ and customs which
impoverished interhuman relations. They hoped to achieve this aim
by penetrating the objective social world with their artistic actions.
To make the actions maximally efficient it was necessary to integrate
art in real life, to abolish the dividing line separating them. That is
why happeners often carried out their actions at public places,
frequented by great numbers of people : on busy streets 'and squares,
at railway stations, airports, etc. Also at places where phenomena
of common life provoked happeners' protests, because of their
absurdity or cruelty, e.g. at slaughter-houses, in slums, at places of
exuberant wealth. In their effort to assimilate art to real life
happeners admitted chance as. a factor determining their artistic
decisions, because, as .they say, life is also governed by chance.
Happening should not have a plot, nor should it represent or express
anything; it should have features of real, objective actions, like those
we meet with in common life situations. That is why it is sometimes
62 T. PA WLOWSKI

described as a manifestation of the most consequent realism.

Happeners stressed this particular feature of objectivity by handling
objects, sometimes a great mass of them. They were not objects
especially produced for the spectacle, but taken from everyday
life, often found on dumping grounds of contemporary civilisation:
industrial waste, worn out articles of mass production, etc. In its
striving for the maximal 0 bjectivity happening equalized the function
of objects with that of human participants, who are objects, too.
As a further step happeners abolished the artificial borderline, as
they say, between themselves and the audience. They wanted to
shock members of the audience out of their role as passive
consumers, and to stimulate them to autonomic, creative parti-
cipation. The. audience so transformed was then to influence broader
social groups. This was an essential element in the happeners'
attempt to transform human attitudes and interpersonal relations,
for it completed the direct influence of happening with an indirect
one.
This objectivist-extrovert attitude of happening was directed
toward the external world and aimed at its transformation. The
program of action based on it exerted considerable influence upon
art and social attitudes; and even contributed to the evocation of
political unrest in Western Europe. However, the basic aim --- trans-
formation of the principles of social life remained an unfulfilled
myth. The disappointment was great and implied far reaching
consequences in the sphere of artistic and social aims to be put
forward in art. These consequences were drawn out fully by per-
formance which slowly took the place of happening. The
impossibility to change the objective phenomena and processes of
social life by way of direct artistic actions was clearly realized.
Moreover, it was understood that the status and position of the
individual in contemporary nlass-societyhas deteriorated to a degree
which threatened to annihilate entirely the individual's autonomy.
To defend this value became the most important task. The
objectivist-extrovert attitude, discredited as inefficient, was replaced
by an opposite attitude of the subjectivist-introvert character.
Not society and general regularities of social life, but the individual
took the central place in the interest of performance art. Desperate
attempts to rescue what still remained of the individual's integrity
and authenticity advanced to the most urgent undertaking.
Correspondingly, the artistic means used by performance have under-
gone suitable changes. Unlike happening, performance does not
FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE '63

strive to obliterate the borderline between art and life; it does not
put. stress on using objects, on operating a great mass of them. The
role of the minimum of objects used in performance is subordinate
to that of the performer. One does not speak any more about
equality of these two constituents; on the contrary, the special role
of the human individual and its uniqueness is stressed. Descriptions
like "the individual existence", "the highest value", "the sacrum"
or "the center of the world" come up in duscissions about
performance with reference to the individual. As a rule, a spectacle
is carried out by a single artist, not by a group of artists, as it often
was the case with happening. Also, no attempts are made in
performance to transform the audience into active participants, for
such- attempts can easily turn into manipUlation which threatens
those values in the individual, the defence of which is the aim of
performance.
Performance concentrates attention on the individual and its
existential and psychological problems. The individually acting
artist reflects upon himself, strives to get deep into the sphere of
the irrational. It is precisely in the instinctive and the irrational
that he tries to find the last refuge for his autonomy and integrity.
In a natural way the attention shifts to the body of the artist. For,
it is the body which is the substratum for the subconcious and the
instinctive; it is through the body that we experience our existential
pro blems: of life and death, of autonomy and dependance. The
body of the individual artist is therefore put to trial, sometimes to a
cruel one, that transgresses the vague line which separates the normal
from the pathological. Those are extreme situations that make it
possible to know oneself, to find out what are the possibilities and
the limits of one's body and psyche; thus, by nearing the death one
can reach more fully for life. It was hoped that deeper knowledge
of everything that is individual in the human being will make it
possible to achieve the principle aim - to save what still remained of
integrity and independance. of the individual; to restrain the all-
powerful mechanisms of mass-society which subdue the individual
by way of their uniformity-imposing influence, e.g. through mass
media. Sometimes this process of getting to know oneself, of putting
oneself to trial took on the character of "organic work" : through
knowledge of one's own body and psyche to gain influence upon
people's attitudes and interhuman relations. Such is the society as
are the individuals of which the society consists - this postUlate,
even if not stated explicitly, seems to underlie the above sketched
64 T. PAWLOWSKI

program.

The Variants of Performance

The foregoing comparison of happening and performance could

give the impression that each of these domains of art is something
homogeneous, distinguishable by a specific set of characters. How-
ever, this would be a simplified picture. Both happening and per-
formance comprise, instead, a number of varieties 1 .. Taking as the
basis of division the meaning and function of performance, I have
differentiated the following variants :
1. Actions in which the individual and his problems are the
central point of interest. The individual is indeed the fundamental
point of reference in all of the variants, but here he is the subject
of direct interest.
2. Actions which reflect upon the course and meaning of the
evolution of mankind.
3. Here various aspects of life in contemporary mass-society
are subject of reflection and criticism ..
4. Actions of autothematic character. Art and the artist, and
their relations to society are here the subject of interest; as well as
artist's reflection and researches on phenomena related to creation
and perception of art: processes and mechanisms of perception,
space and time, behaviour and its relations to environment, etc.
5. Actions aimed at evoking specific experiences in reference to
archetypes, myths, philosophic or religious sys.j-sms, or some occult
or para-psychological phenomena, etc.; they may involve large
audiences, the aim is then not to communicate a message, but to
create a chance for common experiences amongst large crowds of
similarly experiencing people.
These variants have been distinguished with regard to problems
which dominate in each of them. It is, of course, possible that every
va~iant may contain clues, characteristic of some other variant.
In their actions performers use freely all kinds of materials,
techniques, and means of expression. They even raised the freedom
of means-selection to .a purposefully formulated postulate, and
pleaded, like happeners, for interdisciplinary character of art and
against all established rules of creation. They grounded this postulate
in the artists' need of spontaneous, authentic expression. According
to performers, care for purity and homogeneity of means,
observation of rules, etc., exertsa restrictive, braking effect upon the
FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE 65

creative process. That is why many of them rejected such currents

in contemporary art as Conceptualism or Minimal-Art.
The above distinguished variants of performance differ with
regard to means. Taking these differences as the basis of division,
one could split each variant into further sub-groups, differing relative
to the means used or ways of their application.
In some of the five variants, though particularly in the first
one, a special role is played by the body of the performing artist.
At present the body has undoubtedly lost the central position which
it held earlier. For instance, Vito Acconci, one of the classics of
Body-Art, who was in the early period obsessed with his body and
psyche, has subsequently turned into a radical interested in politics.
He is now attracted by fashionable cultural and social problems,
by the problem of power.
The body of the artist became a new means of artistic expres-
sion or exposition. However, what comes to the foreground is not
representation, but rather engaged experiencing of one's body,
subjected to severe, sometimes cruel experiments. Such actions, it
was expected, give the artist a chance to know himself and to gain
controll over his body and psyche. The most intime problems of the
psychological and bodily spheres were thus radically disclosed.
A number of Body-Artists aim to know "the language" of the
body, to get through to the original, autonomic, spontaneous
reactions of the individual, to purify them from distortions caused
by various external factors, like cultural conventions, mass-media,
etc. These researches were often accompanied by desperate efforts
to replace the social mask with the truth of individual expression.
Can such endeavours be successful ? Or do we confront here an un-
real myth? Does not rejection of culturally conditioned masks leave
us with the void, as it is the case when we strip off the layers of an
onion? Is not an attempt at discovering the true features of indivi-
duality a construction of another' social mask, conditioned by the
tendencies and""values accepted in contemporary avant-garde art?
Therepeutica.1 action was another purpose of Body-Art. Some-
times it was based on Utopian assumptions relating either "to the
possibility of therapeutical .influence of Body-Art, or to general
psycho-physical regularities upon which such influence must be
founded. Body-Art fights for the liberation of the body, of its needs
which had been suppressed by various containing influences on the
part of society or culture. The question arises whether indeed all
cultural constraints of this kind limit the sovereignty of the indi-
66 T. PAWLOWSKI

vidual, and are therefore something harmful which should be

avoided ? Perhaps the removal of some of the constraints results
in effects which contradict the intended purpose, and thus lead to
even worse constraints? As far as I know, such questions have. not
been considered 'in Body -Art.
The variety of ways to expose body is rich; they can be ordered
with regard to a number of pairs of opposing properties:
1. Analytical exhibition which addresses the intelect versus
narcissistic exhibition to be received on the principle of visual
pleasure. '
2. Psychophysical manifestation of body (e.g. Acconci, Bruce,
Pane) versus symbolic use of it (e.g. Vautier).
3. The use of body as substratum of individual, existential
experiences versus a-individual and anonymous use, for instance
with the aim to discover or expose general patterns of "Body-
Language" (e.g. S. Burton).
4. The use of body as an object or material differs from all
previously distinguished ways of exposition (e.g. body lying on grass
in an action by Gina Pane: A Hot Afternoon, 1968).
The last way of using body is characteristic of the happening,
and is one of the features which distinguish it from performance.
It is worth while to call attention to the difference between Body-
Art and performance on the one hand, and the Vienna Actionism,
on the other. The Vienna-Actionists (H. Nitsch and others) used
body in connection with ritual, myths and archetypes; which is not
typical either for Body,.Art or for performance 2
Let me now refer to actions which illustrate some of the distin-
guished variants of performance; further examples will appear in the
sequel. "
The first variant (the individual and its problems) is a
compound category which comprises several types, depending on the'
main purpose of a given action : 1. to get to know one's body and
psyche; 2. to save the authonomy and integrity of the individual;
3. ,the struggle of, the individual with his lot; efforts to find the
ultimate y.alues and the meaning of existence; 4. actions in which
reflection on the artist's own biography is an essential element.
Here are some examples which represent these types: Vito
Acconci (e.g. See Through, 1969)3; Gina Pane (e.g. climbing bare-
foot a ladder with its rungs bristled with sharp nails); Orlane (the
artist confronts _. measures herself with - cultural institutions, like
famous buildings of historic value, fashionable museums or theatres,
FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE 67

using her body as a unit of measure); Jean Chireboudt (the struggle

of the individual to find the value and meaning of existence, Lyon
1981); Reindeer Werk (Tom Puckey and Dirk Larsen; they involve
the audience into actions intended to remove the layer of socially
imposed patterns of behaviour, and to reveal what remained of- the
authentic and the spontaneous); Roland Miller (e.g. The Landscape
of Living Space, Lodz 1979); Rose Garard (dispute with her own
biography, installation, Lyon 1981); Carolee Schneeman (psycho-
social problems of sex and symbolic of sex, Lyon 1981); Jurgen
Klauke (problems of sex and oftransvestity).
Second variant _. reflection on the course and meaning of the
evolution of mankind: Peter Trachsel and Ernst Thoma, Lyon 1981;
Cornelia Balceroviak, Lyon 1981; Christina Kubisch and Fabrizio
Plessi, Lyon 1981 .--- some problems in this action fall under
variant 3.
Third variant - . critical reflection on life in contemporary mass-
society: Nigel Rolfe, Lyon 1981; Klemens Golf, Lyon 1981;
Roberto Taroni, Lyon 1981; Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Australia
1.981; Heinz Cibulka, Lyon 1981.
Fifth variant -- "Fest fur Leda", 1977, by Antoni Miralda and
others. The action invoives large audience; Jared Bark, "Krishna
Concrete", Kassel 1977;4 Natalia L L, "Pyramid", Wroclaw 1979 :
the aim of the action is to. detect and experience the influence of
the architectonic form of pyramid upon the process of dreaming.

The Problem of the Definition of Performance

I have already called attention to the compound character of

this concept. This results in serious methodological difficulties which
have to be reckoned with in all attempts at formulating an adequate
definition; adequate with regard to the present use of the term in
discussions about contemporary art .. In particular, it is inadmissible
to single out arbitrarily only some of the realizations referred to by
the term "performance", and to recognize them as its "true"
extension .. Such an operation is methodologically sound only if its
author has pointed out that the existing extension is not scientifical-
ly useful; and that, moreover, the new extension he has stipulated
fulfils -such condition of usefulness5 .
The present extension of the term "performance" results from
the evolution the art of performance has gone through in the seven-
ties. A review of its contemporary state was presented at the "Third
68 T. PAWLOWSKI

International Symposium of Performance Art", Lyon 1981. One

could there observe that many actions of to-day differ considerably
from the early realizations. In this original model a single artist
carries out some actions in front of an audience, using the minimum
of materials, sometimes only his own body. The actions were simple,
of non-professional character. In the focal point stood the engaged
experiencing of the artist (which could transmit to the audience),
and not presenting or communicating. The action dealt with psycho-
social and existential problems of the individual. Often, they were
intimate matters of the ihternallife, of sex and of sex-transformation
(transvestity), of relations between the sexes; efforts to get through
to yet undistorted layers of psychological and bodily reactions in
order to strengthen autonomy and integrity of the individual. The
performers of to-day deviate considerably from the original model.
A single artist is often replaced by a pair or a group of artists; even
though the groups are usually small. Only exceptionally, e;g. at a
vernissage, the artist meets his audience directly. Otherwise the con-
tact is indirect, through the medium of film, video or photography,
which also furnish documentation of the original actions. The media-
tion of the contact takes on various forms, depending on the
intention of the artist. Sometimes the artist simply is unable or does
not want to repeat his original action, and is satisfied with a
mediated contact. At other times it involves his conviction of basic
unrepeatability of actions; every attempt at a repetition results in
an action essentially different from the original one. However, un-
like in happening, the postulate of unrepeatability was rarely put
forward in performance; the majority of performers repeated their
actions several times. Mediation of the contact may also result from
changed aim and function of performance. Direct contact opens the
possibility of interaction between the artist and his audience; but it
can also impede the artist in his efforts to concentrate upon him'self,
and on intensive experiencing of his action. If the aim .of the artist
is not'!' interactiQn, but intensive experiencing, the camera is the
only direct witne~s of his action. In all three cases mediation of the
contact implies the use of technical means to register the cqurse of
the artist's action. In the third case there appears an additional,
important element; it changes the character of the action and
subsumes it under a different variant of performance.
Restraint in the use of means and materials, limitation to the
minimum, so characteristic of the early performances, were later
often rejected. This is particularly visible in actions of para-theatrical
FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE 69

groups, in the use of ballet and music; in street actions resembling

carnivals or rites, where the aim is joint experiencing in a mass of
people who behave and experience similarly; in autothematic actions
with the use of a complicated technical outfit, where the theme is
art and its relations to society. Many performances of to-day have
lost the unprofessional character, so typical of early realizations.
They require professional knowledge and techniques of various
domains of art, or advanced informations about historical or
theoretical problems of art. Also, the range 6f themes dealt with in
the early performances has been broadened considerably. Intimate
psychological and existential problems of the individual have been
supplelnented by a large spectrum of subjects; their division into
five thematic groups has been presented above.
The evolution of performance, as outlined sketchily, explains,
why the totality of realizations referred to by this term does not
make up a homogeneous set, distinguished by a conjunction of pro-
perties common to all such realizations and only to them. It follows
that the usual equivalence A is B will not do for an adequate
definition of performance. To give an adequate reconstruction of
the existing use of the term "performance" its definition must have
a different, more compound structure.
Before I proceed to give an outline of such a structure, I should
like to refer to an interesting attempt by Helena Kontova to give a
definition of performance of the equivalence type. She writes:
"The essential thing is to use the minimum of materials (some-
times only the human body in space) in order to create the
maximum of stimulation and engagement in an open-structure
situation, difficult for realization".6.
This description forms the definiens of an equivalence defini-
tion of performance; at least I received it this way. Kontova has
caught in it certain essential features of performance; however,
the description does not render adequately the existing usage. I
think the extension established by this description partly overlaps
the extension corresponding to the actual usage. This means that
there are actions which meet Kontova's conditions, but do not
belong in the extension "performance"; and vice versa - such that
belong. in the extension, but do not meet the conditions. Indeed,
Kontova's description corresponds most closely to the early per-
formances; although even here the introduction of some 3.dditional
features would be necessary to narrow somewhat the extension set
in her description. 7
70 T.PAWLOWSKI

The following facts have to be taken as a starting point in any

attempt at an adequate definition of performance. Performance
is not a homogeneous phenomenon. The extension of this term does
not consist of one uniform set of realizations, but of a family of
subsets, connected by only partial similarities. "Performance" is
an open concept to be defined partially by a set of partial defini-
tions : most often they give only sufficient or only necessary
conditions for the application of the term "performance". Every
sufficient condition corresponds to a variant of performance. A
necessary condition sets up criteria, the .lack of which excludes a
given realization from the set of performances8
To obtain concrete partial criteria for performance we have
first to distinguish a number of its potential definitional features.
Suitable combinations of those features make up partial criteria
which establish particular variants of performance. Taking advantage
of the foregoing analys~s, I have distinguished the following set of
seven pairs of opposing properties:
1. The performer and at the same time the author of an action
is a single artist -.. is a small group of artists.
2. T1;le performer (the group) appears directly before the
audience -' the' contact is mediated, e.g. through film, video, or
photography.
3. Realization uses the minimum of materials - the materials
used decidedly exceed the minimum.
4. Realization has a non-professional character - realization
presupposes professional knowledge of some fields and skill in using
suitable technical outfit.
5. .The role of the audience is limited to perceiving and
experiencing .... the performer (the group) involves the members of
the audience in active participation, joining their reactions as an
integral part in the spectacle.
, 6. The action does not realize any formal-expressive structure
-... a structure of this kind appears in the action.
7. Chance is not used to determine the course or the shape of
the spectacle - at least some aspects of the action are determined
by chance.
The first elements in pairs 1 _.. 7 are typical of the early per-
formances. The remaining elements dominate often in later .actions.
The active participation of the audience and the use of chance appear
in certain realizations, but only rarely; this is one of the differences
between happening and performance. Besides, even if chance. or
FROM HApPENING TO PERFORMANCE 71

active participation of the audience appear in a performance, their

function is somewhat different from that they have in happening;
in performance their use is not bound with the intention to abolish
the borderline between art and life. The presence of a formal-
expressive structure can be found only exceptionally. An example
is the already mentioned action by J. Clareboudt, Lyon 1981;
anyway, so have I received this engaging spectacle. No particular
feature in pairs 1 -- 7 is a necessary condition of performance.
This can easily be seen; for instance, it is not necessary that the
action be carried out by a single performer, it can be done by a small
group of them; neither is direct presence of the artist. The case is
similar with other features. On the other hand, one can obtain
neces~ary conditions by suitable combinations of those features;
an example is any disjunction of properties appearing in the pairs
1- 7. This is logically evident in some of the pairs, e.g. in 6 and 7,
for one element is there the logical complement of the remaining
one, and therefore their disjunction must appear in any performance.
Further necessary conditions are found among some negative proper-
ties, e.g. the absence of a fable.
N one of the features in the pairs 1 - 7, or a combination
thereof, makes up a sufficient condition of performance. To obtain
such a condition, we must have recourse to the properties of per-
formance,' characteristic of some of the five variants'here distinguish-
ed.
N at all features which were here distinguished or discussed
are definitional properties of performance, i.e. properties ascribable
to performance on the strength of terminological stipulation.
Many properties appertain to performance on the strength of
empirical connections. The absence of a definitional property in a
realization excludes it per definitionem from the extension "per-
formance". The case is different with empirical properties. The ab-
sence of such a property in a realization does not speak for its ex-
clusion from the extension "performance"; it only falsifies the
supposed empirical relationship between performance and the
property in question.

Some Partial Criteria for Performance

Many early performances, but also some later, actions fulfil

the following sufficient condition :
72 T. PAWLOWSKI

Realization in which a single performer appears directly before

the audience; using the minimum of materials he presents some
existential or psycho-social problems of the individual, as defined
in variant one. The aim is to evoke the maximal engagement in the
performer and in the audience, without, however, involving the
audience in active participation. The realization has a non-
professional character, does not create any formal-expressive
structure, and does not admit chance as a factor co-determining the
shape of the action. .
The examples are some of the actions by such artists as Gina
Pane, Vito Acconci, Gunter Brus, Marina Abramovic, or Zbigniew
Warpechowski.
Further partial criteria can be obtained by modification of the
criterion just formulated. For instance, admitting an active involv-
ment of the audience, we get a new variant of performance~ We can
point to "Seedbed" by Acconci, New York 1971, as an example
of such an action. The theme are psycho-social problems of sex
juxtaposed with the relations between the artist and the audience 9 .
And now an example of a partial criterion for the auto thematic
variant of performance. The subject of interest are here the problems
as defined in variant four.
Realization in which a single performer appears directly before
the audience; he uses a rich stock of means, often a complicated
technical equipment, to present some problems characteristic of
variant four in order to stimulate reflection on these problems.
The action requires professional knowledge about history or theory
of art or skillin manipulating technical equipment used. It does
not create any formal-expressive structure and does not admit chance
to determine any of its aspects.
One can adduce many actions as instances of the above defined
variant. Here are some more recent examples : Benni Efrat, film,
Lyon 1981; Grzegorz Sztabihski, film, Lyon 1981; Peter Weibel,
video, Lyon 1981; Wojciech Bruszewski, video, Lodz.
Here are some examples of a different variant of auto thematic
actions where only the minimum of simple materials is used:
Moguera, Lyon 1981 - art as a factor which refreshes and intensifies
perceptive and cognitive powers of man; N. Urban, "Flower Walk",
Enschede 1979 - . relations between art, artist and society. In this
realization comes in the 'additional factor of involving the audience
in active participation 1 0 .
FROM HAPPENING TO PERFORMANCE 73

Some critics and art theoreticians consider the appearance of .

autothematic problems in performance as a symptom of its decay,
caused by growing dependance of artists upon galleries, marchandes
and patrons of art. Such a dependance, they say, did not exist in the
early period of performance when artists organized their actions at
various private accomodations or in the open space 1 1. It seems,
however, that this opinion is justified only with regard to some
performances of the autothematic variant.
Using the procedure here described, one can 0 btai~ additional
criteria for further variants of performance.
"Performance", like other concepts with family meanings,
is less useful in discussion and research than concepts fully defined
with the aid of the usual equivalence A is B. As theoretical reflection
on performance develops, it may become possible to differentiate
in the present unhomogeneous extension "performance" one or
more smaller, homogeneous sets of realizations. The ne~ terms
coordinated to these sets are fully definable with the usual
definitional equation. However, such differentiation cannot. be
carried out arbitrarily. It must be based on a theory of performance
or at least essential rudiments thereof; (it could also be a more
general theory of artistic phenomena); the aim of the theory being
description and explanation of various artistic, psychological, social,
etc. functions of performance. The role of the newly proposed defi-
nition of performance in this theory justifies then why these and
not other definitive features have been selected, and why this and
not other set of realizations has been stipulated as the extension of
the term "performance".

NOTES

1 I give a detailed analysis of the happening's features in the paper :

The Concept .2f Happening. In : T. Pawlowski, Concept Formation
in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. D. Reidel, Dordrecht,
1980.
2 Compare: Carlo Bertocci, American Performance Art' Week,
Florence, "Flash Art" No 98-99, 1980; Helena Kontova, The Artists
of New Performa!lce, "Studio News", January 1981.
3 For more information about Acconci's realizations see: Germano
Celant, Dirty Acconci, "Artforum", November 1980.
74 T. PAWLOWSKI

4 For detailed information about the actions 'by Miralda and Bark
see: Joachim Diederichs, Zum Begriff "Performance", in: Docu-
menta 6, Band 1, Kassel 1977.
5I analyse the problem of scientific usefulness of definitions and
concepts in Begriffsbildung und Definition, de Gruyter, BerIin-
New York, 1980; see also: The Concept of Happening, OPe cit.
6 H. Kontova, The Artists of New Performance, OPe cit.
7 I further elaborate and substantiate my remarks on Kontova~s
description in another paper, of mine to be published in Polish.
8I give 'a detailed analysis of open concepts in : Begriffsbildung ...
Ope 'cit.; "Happening" as an open concept is discussed in : Concept
Formation ... Ope cit.
9 For details see : Germano Celant, OPe cit.
10 For details on this action see: Antje von Graevenitz, Nikolaus
Urban's Recent Performances. "Flash Art", 1980, No 94-95.
11 See for instance: Marc Chaimovicz, Performance, "Studio Inter-
national", 1977, vol. 193, No. 985.