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Body Art and Performance: The Body as Language
When The Body as Language ("Body-art" and Performance) appeared in 1974, it was immediately a huge publishing hit, reviewed by some of the most influential art historians and writers (Giulio C. Argan, Edoardo Sanguineti, Max Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, François Pluchart, Peter Gorsen, Evelyn Weiss and many others). A direct testimony of the birth and development of one of the most controversial art trends, Lea Vergine's book avails of a series of texts by the artists themselves, whom the author had asked to contribute with a statement about the illustrations of their work. Featuring a thorough documentation of original photographs and film photograms, videotapes, happenings, actions and performances, the book analyses the evolution of this phenomenon through the works of sixty artists, including Gina Pane, Gilbert & George, Urs Lüthi and Katharina Sieverding, Rebecca Horn, Trisha Brown, Günter Brus and many others who have worked with and on the body.
In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions."
When The Body as Language ("Body-art" and Performance) appeared in 1974, it was immediately a huge publishing hit, reviewed by some of the most influential art historians and writers (Giulio C. Argan, Edoardo Sanguineti, Max Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, François Pluchart, Peter Gorsen, Evelyn Weiss and many others). A direct testimony of the birth and development of one of the most controversial art trends, Lea Vergine's book avails of a series of texts by the artists themselves, whom the author had asked to contribute with a statement about the illustrations of their work. Featuring a thorough documentation of original photographs and film photograms, videotapes, happenings, actions and performances, the book analyses the evolution of this phenomenon through the works of sixty artists, including Gina Pane, Gilbert & George, Urs Lüthi and Katharina Sieverding, Rebecca Horn, Trisha Brown, Günter Brus and many others who have worked with and on the body.
In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions."
In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions."
When The Body as Language ("Body-art" and Performance) appeared in 1974, it was immediately a huge publishing hit, reviewed by some of the most influential art historians and writers (Giulio C. Argan, Edoardo Sanguineti, Max Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, François Pluchart, Peter Gorsen, Evelyn Weiss and many others). A direct testimony of the birth and development of one of the most controversial art trends, Lea Vergine's book avails of a series of texts by the artists themselves, whom the author had asked to contribute with a statement about the illustrations of their work. Featuring a thorough documentation of original photographs and film photograms, videotapes, happenings, actions and performances, the book analyses the evolution of this phenomenon through the works of sixty artists, including Gina Pane, Gilbert & George, Urs Lüthi and Katharina Sieverding, Rebecca Horn, Trisha Brown, Günter Brus and many others who have worked with and on the body.
In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions."
- GenresArtArt HistoryNonfiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Lea Vergine
30 books5 followersLea Vergine (born Lea Buoncristiano) is an italian art critic and curator. She collaborates with some of the most influential newspapers like Il Manifesto and Il Corriere della Sera.
She wrote different essays on contemporary art and organised various exhibitions.
She wrote different essays on contemporary art and organised various exhibitions.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 21, 2025
As Emile Cioran reminds us, we can think of the mystic as a rebel-as a rebel by vocation--or as a daring combatant who is often heretical and paradoxical with respect to questions of faith, but forever unrivaled in the passion for self-inflicted torture.
Virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystic-like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains, destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves.
But mysticism has always found the body to lie at its point of origin. It is, first of all, a physical experience: a source of fluids, of blood, of humors, of various waters that flow, coagulate, and again grow liquid. The relationship with God-Christian, Hebrew, or Muslim-burns with fire and liquefies like wax. The soul cannibalizes the body in which it lives, sucks it in like breath, swallows it into its stomach, sates itself on its substance. Nothing is more physical than the practice of mysticism.
Lea Vergine
Virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystic-like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains, destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves.
But mysticism has always found the body to lie at its point of origin. It is, first of all, a physical experience: a source of fluids, of blood, of humors, of various waters that flow, coagulate, and again grow liquid. The relationship with God-Christian, Hebrew, or Muslim-burns with fire and liquefies like wax. The soul cannibalizes the body in which it lives, sucks it in like breath, swallows it into its stomach, sates itself on its substance. Nothing is more physical than the practice of mysticism.
Lea Vergine
Displaying 1 of 1 review