Philosophy:Endurance art

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Short description: Kind of performance art involving hardship
Marina Abramović's The Artist is Present, 2010, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Abramović sat silently opposite museum visitors for eight hours a day for three months, a total of 750 hours.[1]
The artist Abel Azcona during The Death of The Artist at Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid
File:Endurance unnies.jpg
Theatre collective Pony Cam during a performance of Burnout Paradise; in a metaphor for capitalist pressures, the performers must complete increasingly difficult tasks without leaving their treadmills, or else offer full ticket refunds to the audience[2]

Endurance art is a kind of performance art involving some form of hardship, such as pain, solitude or exhaustion.[3] Performances that focus on the passage of long periods of time are also known as durational art or durational performances.[4]

Human endurance contests were a fad of Depression-era United States from the 1920s–1930s.[5] Writer Michael Fallon traces the genre of endurance art to the work of Chris Burden in California in the 1970s.[6] Burden spent five days in a locker in Five Day Locker Piece (1971), had himself shot in Shoot (1971), and lived for 22 days in a bed in an art gallery in Bed Piece (1972).[7]

Other examples of endurance art include Tehching Hsieh's One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece), in which for 12 months he punched a time clock every hour, and Art/Life One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece), in which Hsieh and Linda Montano spent a year tied to each other by an eight-foot (2.4 m) rope.[8]

In The House with the Ocean View (2003), Marina Abramović lived silently for 12 days without food or entertainment on a stage entirely open to the audience.[9] Such is the physical stamina required for some of her work that in 2012 she set up what she called a "boot camp" in Hudson, New York, for participants in her multiple-person performances.[10]

The Nine Confinements or The Deprivation of Liberty is a conceptual, endurance art and performative work of critical and biographical content by artist Abel Azcona. The artwork was a sequence of performances carried out between 2013 and 2016. All of the series had a theme of deprivation of liberty. The first in the series was performed by Azcona in 2013 and named Confinement in Search of Identity.[11] The artist was to remain for sixty days in a space built inside an art gallery of Madrid, with scarce food resources and in total darkness. The performance was stopped after forty-two days for health reasons and the artist hospitalised.[12] Azcona created these works as a reflection and also a discursive interruption of his own mental illness, mental illness being one of the recurring themes in Azcona's work.[13]

Examples

Tehching Hsieh spent a year in this cage in his studio in One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece).
  • Marina Abramović[14] – Rhythm 0, 1974; Rhythm 5, 1974; Luminosity, 1997, 2010; Nude with Skeleton, 2002, 2005, 2010;[10] The House With the Ocean View (2003); Balkan Erotic Epic, 2005.[15]
  • Marina Abramović with Ulay[16] – Point of Contact, 1980;[10] Night Sea Crossing, 1981; The Lovers: Walk on the Great Wall, 1988.[17]
  • Vito Acconci – Seedbed, 1972.[18]
  • David Askevold – Fill, 1970.[19][20]
  • Abel Azcona - The Death of The Artist,[21] 2018. The Fathers, 2016. Amen or The Pederasty, 2015. Buried, 2015. Eating, 2012. The Nine Confinements or The Deprivation of Liberty, 2013-2016.
  • Stuart Brisley – And for today ... nothing, 1972.[22]
  • Chris Burden[16] – Five Day Locker Piece, 1971.
  • David Blaine[23] – Witness (1999),[24] Buried Alive, Frozen in Time, Vertigo, Above the Below, Drowned Alive, Revolution, Electrified, Ascension.
  • Nikhil Chopra, – Give Me Your Blood And I Will Give You Freedom, 2014.[25]
  • Houston Conwill – Juju Rituals, 1975–1983.[26]
  • Elevator Repair Service – Gatz, 2005.[25][27]
  • EJ Hill – A Monumental Offering of Potential Energy, 2016.[28][29][30][31]
  • Tehching Hsieh – One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece); One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece).[32][33]
  • Tehching Hsieh with Linda Montano – Art/Life One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece).
  • Ragnar Kjartansson – A Lot of Sorrow, 2014.[34]
  • Stan Lai – A Dream Like A Dream, 2014.[25]
  • Dani Marcel - Never smiling during the Trump presidency, 2025 [35]
  • Eric Millikin – My Drinking Problem, 2016.[36][37]
  • Bruce Nauman – Stamping in the Studio, 1968; Revolving Upside Down, 1969.[19][38][39]
  • Bryan Lewis Saunders – Under the Influence, 2001;[40] 30 Days Totally Blind, 2018.[41]
  • Carolee Schneeman – Up To And Including Her Limits, 1973—1976.[19]
  • Wolfgang Stoerchle – Attempt Public Erection, 1972–1975.[26]
  • Emma Sulkowicz – Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight), 2014–2015.[42][16]
  • Zhang Huan – 12 Square Meters, 1994.[43]
  • Benjamin Bennett – Sitting and Smiling, 2014 – 2025.[44][45]
  • Guido Segni – A quiet desert failure, 2013 – ongoing.[46][47][48][49][50][51]
  • Paul Wong – In Ten Sity, 1978.[52]
  • Nadya Tolokonnikova – Police State, 2025.[53]
  • Pony Cam - Burnout Paradise, 2023 - ongoing.[54]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Greenwood, "Wait, Why Did That Woman Sit in the MoMA for 750 Hours?", The Atlantic, 2 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "The Show That Gives ‘Running Time’ A New Meaning". April 3, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/theater/burnout-paradise-treadmills-theater-off-broadway.html. 
  3. ↑ For artists in endurance performances "[q]uestioning the limits of their bodies," Tatiana A. Koroleva, Subversive Body in Performance Art, ProQuest, 2008, pp. 29, 44–46.
  4. ↑ Paul Allain, Jen Harvie, The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, Routledge, 2014, p. 221. Other terms include duration art, live art or time-based art.

    Beth Hoffmann, "The Time of Live Art," in Deirdre Heddon, Jennie Klein (eds.), Histories and Practices of Live Art, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, p. 47.
  5. ↑ "Dance Marathons of the 1920s and 1930s". https://www.historylink.org/file/5534. 
  6. ↑ Michael Fallon, Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s, Counterpoint, 2014, p. 106: "Burden's performances were so widely observed that they took on a life beyond the artist, helping create a new art genre, 'endurance art' ..."
  7. ↑ Emily Anne Kuriyama, "Everything You Need to Know About Chris Burden's Art Through His Greatest Works", Complex, 2 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Andrew Taylor, "Tehching Hsieh: The artist who took the punches as they came", Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 2014: "Don't try this endurance art at home. That is Tehching Hsieh's advice to artists inspired to emulate the five year-long performances he began in the late 1970s."
  9. ↑ Thomas McEvilley, "Performing the Present Tense – A recent piece by Marina Abramovic blended endurance art and Buddhist meditation," Art in America, 91(4), April 2003.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 E. C. Feiss, "Endurance Performance: Post-2008", Afterall, 23 May 2012.
  11. ↑ García García, Oscar (July 12, 2013). "The artist Abel Azcona will remain locked up for sixty days without light.". Contemporary Art Platform. https://www.plataformadeartecontemporaneo.com/pac/el-artista-abel-azcona-permanecera-encerrado-durante-60-dias-sin-luz/. 
  12. ↑ Guisado, Paula (August 17, 2013). "An artist ends up in the hospital after 42 days emulating life in a placenta". El Mundo. https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/08/16/madrid/1376678549.html. 
  13. ↑ Corroto, Paula (June 16, 2019). "Abel Azcona: "I feel more a prostitute's son or mentally ill than an artist"". El Confidencial. https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2019-06-16/entrevista-abel-azcona-que-me-detengan_2072923/. 
  14. ↑ Miriam Seidel, "Pioneer Of Endurance Art To Give Lecture", Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 December 1998.

    John Perreault, "Lady Gaga Rejected by Marina Abramović, Plus MoMA Sound", Artopia, 13 September 2013.
  15. ↑ Karen Rosenberg, "Provocateur: Marina Abramovic", New York Magazine, 12 December 2005.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Jillian Steinhauer, "Two Weeks Into Performance, Columbia Student Discusses the Weight of Her Mattress", Hyperallergic, 17 September 2014 (citing Jon Kessler).
  17. ↑ Paul Allain, Jen Harvie, The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, Routledge, 2014, p. 15.
  18. ↑ John Perreault, "Lady Gaga Rejected by Marina Abramović, Plus MoMA Sound", Artopia, 13 September 2013.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Duke, Emily Vey; Rodgers, Kevin (June 22, 2005). "Two types of sacred: 1970s endurance art today". C Magazine. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-133837314.html. 
  20. ↑ "David Askevold". https://www.umanitoba.ca/schools/art/content/galleryoneoneone/askevol.html. 
  21. ↑ Zas Marcos, Mónica (October 18, 2018). "Abel Azcona offers a gun to those who fantasize about killing him in his latest performance". El Diario.es. https://www.eldiario.es/cultura/arte/Abel-Azcona-pistola-asesinar-performance_0_826268095.html. 
  22. ↑ Dierdre Heddon, "The Politics of Live Art," in Heddon and Klein 2012, p. 87.
  23. ↑ Cindy Adams, "He'll stay awake the longest ever", New York Post, 5 December 2007.
  24. ↑ Linda M. Montano, Letters from Linda M. Montano, Routledge, 2012, p. 185.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Deepika Shetty, "Endurance art: Five memorable marathon performances", The Straits Times, 14 August 2013.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Karen Gonzalez Rice, "Sexing the Monk: Masculinity and Monastic Discipline in American Endurance Art Circa 1975", College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, 12–15 February 2014.
  27. ↑ Trout Monfalco, "Endurance Art – Six Hours is Too Long", Art Here and Now, accessed 24 February 2014.
  28. ↑ The New York Times (15 September 2016). "What to See in New York Galleries This Week". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/arts/design/what-to-see-in-new-york-galleries-this-week.html. 
  29. ↑ "Alive Someplace Better: EJ Hill's Horizontal Poetics by Amber Officer- Narvasa". http://www.arts.black/alive-someplace-better. 
  30. ↑ "Video: Studio Museum in Harlem Artists in Conversation". http://www.thegreenespace.org/story/video-webcast-studio-museum-harlem-artists-conversation/. 
  31. ↑ "EJ Hill: In Conversation with Nicole Kaack". 28 November 2016. http://sfaq.us/2016/11/ej-hill-in-conversation-with-nicole-kaack/. 
  32. ↑ "Tehching Hsieh: the man who didn't go to bed for a year" (in en). 2014-04-30. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/australia-culture-blog/2014/apr/30/tehching-hsieh-the-man-who-didnt-go-to-bed-for-a-year. 
  33. ↑ John Perrault, "Tehching Hsieh: Caged Fury", Artopia, 1 February 2009.
  34. ↑ "Sorrow on repeat: Ragnar Kjartansson on endurance art", CBC, 20 January 2015; "Ragnar Kjartansson and The National A Lot of Sorrow ", Luhring Augustine.
  35. ↑ "Artnotes - Say what?". Art Monthly (489): 24. May 2025. 
  36. ↑ "Celebrations abound for Vernors' 150th anniversary: Pop Art" (in en). Detroit News. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/dining/2016/06/01/celebrations-vernors-th-anniversary/85248080/. 
  37. ↑ "My Drinking Problem: Pumpkin Spice Odyessy" (in en-US). Eric Millikin. https://ericmillikin.com/home/eric-millikin-pumpkin-spice-drink-odyessy. 
  38. ↑ "Electronic Arts Intermix: Stamping in the Studio, Bruce Nauman". https://www.eai.org/titles/stamping-in-the-studio. 
  39. ↑ "Electronic Arts Intermix: Revolving Upside Down, Bruce Nauman". https://www.eai.org/titles/revolving-upside-down. 
  40. ↑ Ronson, Jon (2012-11-30). "Bryan Saunders: Portrait of the artist on crystal meth". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/30/bryan-saunders-artist-drugs-ronson. 
  41. ↑ "30 Days Totally Blind — Bryan Lewis Saunders". 2018-10-21. https://www.publicpressure.io/articles/30-days-totally-blind-bryan-lewis-saunders. 
  42. ↑ Roberta Smith, "In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest", The New York Times, 22 September 2014.
  43. ↑ Hentyle Yapp, Verona Leung, "Revisiting performance art of the 1990s and the politics of meditation", Leap, 8 August 2013.
  44. ↑ Putney, Dean (7 October 2015). "Internet man sits and smiles at camera for hundreds of hours". Boing Boing. http://boingboing.net/2015/10/07/internet-man-sits-and-smiles-a.html. 
  45. ↑ Benjamin Bennett (2025-01-06). Sitting and Smiling #327. Retrieved 2026-07-25 – via YouTube.
  46. ↑ (in en) A Quiet Desert Failure. http://desert.fail/ure. Retrieved 2018-01-23. 
  47. ↑ (in en) A Quiet Desert Failure. http://quietdesertfailure.tumblr.com/. Retrieved 2018-01-23. 
  48. ↑ "A Quiet Desert Failure, be patient, the desert is coming" (in en). http://neural.it/2016/02/a-quiet-desert-failure-be-patient-the-desert-is-coming/. 
  49. ↑ "A Quiet Desert Failure" (in en). http://festival.j-mediaarts.jp/en/works/art/a-quiet-desert-failure/. 
  50. ↑ "A Quiet Desert Failure" (in en). http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/recursos/obras/a-quiet-desert-failure-2015/. 
  51. ↑ "Guido Segni's A quiet desert failure" (in en). 2015-11-25. https://www.furtherfield.org/guido-segnis-a-quiet-desert-failure/. 
  52. ↑ Knights, Karen (2000). "Sculpting The Deficient Flesh: Mainstreet, Body Culture And The Video Scapel". in Abbott, Jennifer. Making Video "In": The Contested Ground Of Alternative Video On The West Coast. Vancouver: Video Inn Studios. p. 53. ISBN 9781551520223. 
  53. ↑ "The Defining Artworks of 2025". 2025-12-08. https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/news/most-important-artworks-1234762369/nadya-tolokonnikova-police-state-2025/. 
  54. ↑ "The Show That Gives ‘Running Time’ A New Meaning". April 3, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/theater/burnout-paradise-treadmills-theater-off-broadway.html. 

Further reading

Template:Performance art



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