“Documents for Performance Art” displays the rigorous documentation by Larry Manda, Ben Razon, and MM Yu from Ronnie Lazaro’s recent performance art pieces: Breathless, held last July 21, 2018, and Pagsibol ng Hiling, last May 17, 2018, which commemorated his 1996 performance, Bayang Ginigiliw. This showcases performance art through the lense of media, specifically photography and videography. The lack of documentation of previous performance art pieces has led to the creation of the “Documents for Performance Art” exhibit.
Performance art is an art form wherein an artist makes use of his body, time, space, and energy in order to create and present a specific action or actions. It can occur in any space and it always has an audience. It may occur in an empty alley, a busy sidewalk, a road full of vehicles, on stage, or even inside art institutions. It can be anywhere as long as it fulfills the artist’s mission or message. As to understanding the form, this type of art has deep and complicated roots and motivations. It can be done spontaneously or planned prior to the performance. Performance art does not really ring a bell among many in the Philippines. Although modern and contemporary art has made its mark here, visual arts has garnered more attention, leaving performance art practice in the shadows. Aside from this practice being hidden from the limelight, in its early years, performance artists did not really encourage the taking of photographs or videos, or the general act of documenting the performance itself, as this was seen as taking away from the essence of the art practice which required of its audience to be present physically and mentally. Performance art in the Philippines is rarely documented. Fortunately, Ronnie Lazaro’s performance art piece entitled “Breathless”, was well documented through photography and videography by Larry Manda, Ben Razon and MM Yu.
