PERFORMA07, the New York festival for performance art, is currently hosting a performance by the groundbreaking 0100101110101101.ORG art collective. Internet artists Eva and Franco Mattes are re-enacting Alan Kaprow’s 18 happenings in 6 parts. So what, you’ll probably think… Well, they’re restaging these performances not physically in New York but virtually in Second Life. Re-enactments of historical performances are a hot issue, remember Marina Abramovic’s restagings of Vito Acconci and Valie Export performances last year, but the ones Eva and Franco Mattes are organizing meticulously in Second Life might have that extra edge which makes their works the more compelling ones. Previously, they have performed Joseph Beuys’ ongoing 7.000 Oaks project (which is also in Second Life ongoing) and Chris Burden’s Shoot. Rhizome already suggested that these performances are a viable and creative means to preserve an art form that has no material presence, and like oral histories, can be passed down through generations of artists. On another level, just like the original performances were continuously reshaping the boundaries between art and life, these works might be critico-comical comments on the reshaping of boundaries between life and Second Life.

Here for 0100101110101101.ORG.

Here for more info on the performance.

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