Icons of the Performance Still

Investigating German performance art of the early 1960s, one is immediately confronted with photographs, films, and other documents of two specific events: the so-called Festival der Neuen Kunst, which took place in 1964 at the Technische Hochschule Aachen (TH), and a happening entitled 24 Stunden, realized the following year at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal. Both events were conceived for the duration of a few hours and included various performances of multinational Fluxus and performance artists like Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Robert Filliou, Tomas Schmit, and Stanley Brouwn. In Aachen, as well as in Wuppertal, the performance program was based on the principle of simultaneity, so that the public had to switch between different performances and diverse rooms, and no one was able to view the complete program. As proven by numerous photographs, films, and press reviews, both events were attended by several photographers and filmmakers documenting the happenings.