"This publication was first released in German in the context of the exhibition 'Artists & Agents - Performance Art and Secret Services,' October 25, 2019 - March 22, 2020 at HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein), Dortmund. Curated by Inke Arnes (HMKV), Kata Krasznahorkai (University of Zurich), and Sylvia Sasse (University of Zurich)." -- colophon. "The German edition of this publication entitled 'Artists and Agents - Performacekunst und Geheimdienste' has been published by Spector Books in 2019 with the ISBN 9783959053136." -- colophon Includes bibliographical references.
Summary:
"Subversion belongs to no one. It can come from artists who outwit the state, or from secret services who infiltrate the art scene on behalf of the state. But what happens when both sides meet? Since the gradual opening of the secret service archives in Eastern Europe and the fiches in Switzerland, as well as increasing access to individual files in the USA, we know how art and artists have become the target of observation and disinformation. In Eastern Europe, the secret police were particularly afraid of happenings, perfomance art, and action art, and therefore documented them particularly intensively while also trying to manipulate them with counteractions. In Artists & Agents, we show the 'disruptive' creativity of secret police work, the interaction between artistic and secret service actions, as well as the relevance of research in secret service archives for art and cultural history. However, we will also show how artists work with the potential observation of the informers, and how they deal critically with secret service documents and missions today." -- table of contents
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.