Yuki Okumura, 5/11/2021
Proposal for Project Week 2022, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp

Lee Lozano, hand-written text on her decision to boycott any communication with women, 1971 (facsimile exhibited at Mimosa House, London, 2019)*Initially planned for a short term, it becamse a lifelong piece that Lozano carried through until her passing in 1999, leaving no direct documentations.

Title

Human Life as the Site and Duration of a (Conceptual) Performance

Form

Workshop for students

Subject

Performance in the context of conceptual artTutor

Yuki Okumura

WhereWinter Garden (just a corner of it) (or any suggestion appreciated)How

One short, introductory session (or it could be repeated a few times over the week) given by thetutor, followed by participants conceiving an idea immediately or afterwards, hand-writing or
typing a set of instructions, and leaving the text on the wall.

Language

English (students’ instructions can be in Dutch)

Notes- There will be basically no actual performances in front of audience; rather, each student will
come up with an idea of a certain action for them to keep performing in life, and for life.
- For the Project Week, the only visible result will be a corner of the space filled with pieces of
paper hung on the walls.

Overview

I will be human first, artist second.
—Lee Lozano, September 8, 1971

A close reading of the initial 1967 definition posed by artist Sol LeWitt makes it clear that what he termed
conceptual art is not a kind of art where the artist’s deliberate concept is presented explanatorily but one
where the artist’s intuitive conception is realized just as conceived, through a pre-determined set of simple
instructions to which no additional modifications should be arbitrarily made over the course.
In other words, what characterizes conceptual art is not the intention (idea) or the result (object) but theprocess (action) of the work; the artist’s body functions as a quasi-machine to carry through the self-imposed
task, mostly with no companions around.
Thus, a work of conceptual art is best described as a piece of performance. Indeed, etymologically, ‘perform’means ‘carrying out in a perfect manner what is required’ (par-: ‘to completion’ + fournir: ‘provide’) for whichbeing seen is not essential like theater (thea: ‘a view’). Each object resultant from a conceptual process,whether taking the form of a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, or a text, is a documentation of how theexecutant has performed the action—documenting it physically from within, not visually from outside.
This perspective, however, is not just applicable to any instructed action: only to technically easy ones that
virtually anybody could carry out. Because what conceptual art intends is not to exhibit the artist’s special
sensitivity and/or skillfulness but to explore the world’s miraculous unpredictability—to frame how it reacts tohuman actions. For this purpose, the executant/performer’s body serves literally as any body—a mere sampleof humankind—which in turn reveals the fundamental characteristics of her/him as a holistic being, because
the more you forget who you are, the more eloquently your body and life begin to speak.
Yes, conceptual art is extremely human; the executant/performer’s artistry has almost faded away andinstead, their humanhood—the state of living a life with a particular human body—has come to the fore.
This perspective is particularly relevant to artists who carried out (or is still carrying out) one same set ofconceptual instructions for many decades—to the point of their own death—such as stanley brouwn, On
Kawara, Roman Opalka, Lee Lozano, Niele Toroni, Ian Wilson (along with shorter, years-long ones by AndréCadere, Tehching Hsieh, among others). A series of documentation-objects resultant from each of theirdurational performances not only serve as self-portraits; together, they also form an autobiography. Or, in
extreme cases such as Lozano’s practice to ‘boycott women’, no objects were produced; it was just a principlethat she was enacting on a day-to-day basis for nearly thirty years—the whole piece merged into her life.
This workshop aims at offering an occasion for each participant to meditate and experiment upon a possible
piece of conceptual performance to test one’s humanhood, a process that may be performed by themselves orsomebody else—that is, any body—not on stage but in life, not for once but for life.

References

On Kawara, from the series Today (1966–2013)

Roman Opalka, detail of a piece from the series Opaka 1965/1 ‒ ∞, 1965–2011

Niele Toroni, from the series Empreintes de pinceau n°50 à intervalles réguliers de 30 cm, 1966–ongoing

Ian Wilson, a certificate from the series of Discussions, 1968–86 / 1994–2020

André Cadere, from the series
Barres de bois ronds, 1970–1978-Tehching (Sam) Hsieh, from the series
One Year Performances, 1980–1986