What does it mean to perform?
What is a performance?
Where can performances happen?

Artists today work with the idea of performance in two ways:

Performance art refers to art activities that are presented before a live audience and can combine music, dance, poetry, theater, visual art, and video. Whether public, private, or videotaped, performance art often involves the artist performing an action that may be planned and scripted, or may emphasize spontaneous, unpredictable elements of chance. Different types of performance art have evolved from simple, often private investigations of ordinary routines of everyday life, rituals, and tests of endurance to larger-scale site-specific environments and public projects, multimedia productions, and autobiographical cabaret-style solo work.


Performative art describes artists’ explorations of the processes, motions, and actions they use to create art. These acts are often more important to the artists’ practice than the finished art objects. Some artists transform their bodies into paintbrushes or musical instruments or raw materials for a finished product. Others create public or private performances, rituals, or multimedia events in which an artwork is the documentation or by-product.