Performance Art Resources offers a comprehensive overview of site specific performance art and site specific art in general.
what is site specific work?
In performance art, Site Specific work is art work is made for a specific place. If the work is moved to another space it will radically change the (performance) art work and it’s meaning. There are less stringent definitions including where work can be installed in similar spaces. Koplowitz codified levels of site performance as 1. Specific to that site alone, 2. Adaptable to other sites with some changes, 3. Made in a studio and performed in a suitable space, 4. Made for a studio but performed in an outdoor place. Whether one work is more site specific than another I will leave to the individual artists to argue over.
Miwon Kwon goes beyond the idea of what qualifies work to be site specific in a practical sense, and breaks down 3 modes of site specificity: phenomenological, social/institutional, and discursive. These three categories cover the physical properties of a site, the institutional and cultural institutions and issues, as well as the discussion and social aspects of a work.These categories are, for her, ways of being site specific and can include one or more of the modes. A performance in a site can include both the physical characteristics of a space as well as a strong ethic to redress a social issue.
other ways of looking at site specific art:
Heterotopia is a concept in human geography by philosopher Michel Foucault. (Human geography studies and maps people, their cultures, how they live, economies and how they relate to the environment.) Walter Russell Mead wrote, “Utopia is a place where things are good; dystopia is a place where things are bad; heterotopia is a place where things are different”. These are spaces that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call where you are in two places at the same time – physically in your room, conversing with someone in another place.
Site specific performance is a heterotopic performance style, where the audience is simultaneously in a place (a garden, a beach, a theater, a building) that has meaning in its own and, at the same time, watching a performance that is other to that space.
The page for site specific performance art also includes a literature list (about 40 books, sites and articles) which, while not comprehensive, is a good start to the subject. Our full performance art literature page has many more options and we are working on a searchable version of that.
Performance art artists working creating site specific work.
The entire Performance Art Resources site is being set up to allow users to search for artists from around the world creating site specific work. Until then we have a few links to artist pages on the site specific performance art page. By the end of 2027, we hope all 165 country and territory pages are indexed and searchable by specific focus of work. If you want to help us out, please donate a coffee or more so we have energy and time to do all this work!