We have encountered a lot of participatory art over the course of this program, and I mean a lot. It has not only been a major theme at the exhibitions we have visited, and also in our readings for our courses. It is clear that the contemporary art world is currently captivated by this notion of viewer involvement. At Documenta 14, I discovered the choreographer duo Annie Vigier and Frank Apertet, working under the artist name “les gens d’Uterpan.” They have two works included in the Kassel portion of Documenta 14, both of which explore notions of performance and participation. In a contemporary art world whose discourse is so focused on the participatory, I think that these works contribute a lot to the discussion coming from a choreographic standpoint, based in performance theory.

The first work, Scène à l’italienne, 2014–, is unobtrusively installed at the Documenta Halle. I say unobtrusively because the work is easy to miss as it is in effect the floor. More specifically, Vigier and Apertet created a wooden stage– a stage that is tilted at a 5-degree angle like the stage at the Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris. When I experienced the piece, it was only this slight tilt that made me aware that there was anything different about this stage compared to the floor on which I had previously been walking. I made my way over to the wall label where I learned that I had been on a stage, and as a result a performer. Stage fright instantly kicked in, but dissipated relatively quickly as I realized that there was not much of an audience. Still, the idea that I had been performing without knowing it made me uncomfortable. I decided to sit on the steps going down from the stage and watch how other viewers interacted with the piece. Many viewers were entirely unaware of the stage’s presence, using it as a space to take pictures of the other art objects, to converse with friends, or simply as a liminal space to get from one work of art to the next.

It was most interesting to observe viewers who made the same uncomfortable realization that I had and then, once aware of their activation as performers, moved through the space differently. This was the type of experience for which the work was intended to create. In fact, in the didactic material, the artists state that Scène à l’italienne is “not a performance set,” but “a way of ‘staging’ the event to provide a physical experience to the people who walk along.” This statement demonstrates the extent to which the artists are attempting to counteract normative and conventional ways of conceiving of performance. This idea is reinforced by the fact that the artists explicitly state that planned shows and performances cannot be held on the stage as it is devoted to staging everyday situations. While their attempt to curb traditional notions of performance is poignant, I find that their denial of the performative nature of the space too dismissive of the implications ingrained in a stage. It is almost impossible to dissociate a stage with performance; therefore, whether or not they want the stage to be “performance set,” the viewer will feel like a performer.

Their second piece Library, 2017–, was installed at one of the two Torwache houses, which had been inhabited by the Grimm family. At the Torwache site, the work consists of two simple wooden bookshelves housing books about performance and dance. I specify the site because this is a traveling work, whose literary contents will change depending on its location. For Torwache, which was built in the early nineteenth century, the bookshelves reference interior design practices of the eighteenth century. During this period, furniture items, such as bookshelves, were used to counterbalance the architectural design elements and to direct the movement of bodies in the space. As choreographers this is clearly a point of interest for Vigier and Apertet. The intersection of architecture, decorative arts and performance is unpacked with this piece in a highly site specific manner. Its site specific nature is further emphasized by the fact that all the books included in the shelves are written in German, French and English. In line with the idea of performance, the work is participatory in that viewers can read the books.  While I did not participate as I was short on time, I liked that the option was there because the act of reading the books can itself be seen as a performance. There is almost a double performativity here, as the viewer is performing by reading about performance.

Library complements Scène à l’italienne because they highlight two different models of participation. Whereas viewers of Scène à l’italienne are automatically rendered participants regardless whether or not they are aware of their role as performers, viewers of Library can choose if they would like to engage with the work. Becoming a participant by picking up a book to read is a conscious and agential choice on the part of the viewer. I like that Vigier and Apertet are exploring these two types of participatory art, distinguished primarily by whether or not the act of participation is conscious. I think that their intervention into the contemporary art world as choreographers is important because it centers the notion of performativity in participatory art. Ultimately, their work begs the questions: Is there a distinction between a viewer participating and performing in a work of art? Are we always performing as art participants? And, how can performance and dance theory expand our discourse surrounding participatory art?