refuges 2

 











lives of writers have a performance aspect: nothing wrong with living in North London and going to book festivals: not necessary to live like Kerouac nor to act like Marina Abramovic using yourself as an object of art. But Bernhard saw his life in dramatic terms elaborately staging his funeral, will and legacy-all mini performances.
Bernhard's 'life performances' are hardly riveting. Think of Alfred Jarry, another writer/performer: androgynous ephebe with a punchinello voice dressed in hooded cape and Louis XV heels-associate of Bonnard, Lautrec and Apollinaire-interchangeable with Ubu.
Specifically: contrast the habitats of Bernhard and Jarry: Bernhard's farmhouse/castle at Obernathal full of empty rooms and galleries with shuttered windows; Bernhard acting as Hapsburg- farmer- manque, astride his tractor, dressed in lederhosen or posing in Vienna coffee houses. Better if he had watched visionary artistic personas like Beuys or Filiou  on Youtube-imagine Bernhard on Youtube! Think further of Jarry's 'tripod', 'horrific tower' by the Seine, 3.33 x 3.67 , one room with earth floor-bit like a beach hut plus live owls for company; the only photograph of the 'Tripod' captures goats looking in the door. Ubus's cave versus  Heideggers Todtnauberg.
Jarry was a precursor of Dadaism, Duchamp and performance art etc: the idea of the artist setting out to deconstruct his own play during the first night (Ubu) is a century before its time. But who are Jarry's precursors?
If artists are to be performers as well as artists perhaps they should be shamen in which case they may as well be good at it (Beuys and Kudo) rather than poseurs like Bernhard.
Thinking of Beuys, Jonathan Jones (Damien Hirst acolyte) described him in The Guardian recently as a bullshitter. Presumably Jones is thinking of Beuys' war time 'saved by felt and fat' experience. It troubles Jones that Beuys made it up; isn't that what 'performance' is?
Beuys worked with energy rich materials like felt, fat, honey and batteries-materials that nourish, warm and protect. Abramovic explains that the energy is retained in these materials so that Beuys doesn't need to be there anymore. Jones refers to these materials as 'turd like excresences' . If this energy is lost to the viewer as in Jones's case all that remains is bullshit and turds