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行为艺术在中国的7月达到了一个新的国际高度。“第2届大道现场艺术节”证明了行为艺术的活力，同时在中国进而开启了新的公共参与行为艺术的实践。过去那些关于行为艺术常常带来震惊的话题，已经被高质量的作品所取代。同时众多中国人再次证明他们将为行为表演带来一种变化，使之成为在国家层面探讨的中国艺术实践的一部分。这当然可以从多个角度来看，包括在艺术节期间紧接着第一天表演的媒体报道。
“第2届大道现场艺术节”于7月13至17日举办了5天。让我特别惊讶的是，艺术节选择的地点不是北京之外遥远的乡村，而是在国际贸易中心对面的建外SOHO商业街。这是改变公众对行为表演看法的重要标志，并且因此一定要给SOHO的经理们一项荣誉，为了他们支持中国新的具有挑战性的艺术实践所做的推动。当然在大山子艺术区的一些人甚至也能从这次经历中学习，来反省他们禁止行为艺术的开放形式实践的做法。不像最近798的一些公开在大山子国际艺术节期间抵制行为艺术实践的空间经理们，那些SOHO 商业街的负责人已经清楚地证明了他们接纳即便最具挑战形式的当代艺术实践的能力和兴趣。
在SOHO 商业街举办这次活动的事实，更向艺术家提出了有意思的挑战。特别是对场地感到失望的一些国外艺术家，似乎觉得不太符合他们最初对北京想象。他们突然意识到一个事实，那就是北京过去十年来的彻底变化，而且艺术现在已经在市场中确立了它自己的位置。因此对艺术新的挑战不只发生在一些像长城、故宫那样的历史景点，也不再是天安门广场周围。SOHO座落在国际贸易中心与城市雄心勃勃的高耸建设项目当中的事实，要求艺术家把目光放在那些包含新的大都会现代生活的变化上。也许一些艺术家，特别是从海外初次访问北京的艺术家，真的发现是很难在中国经济快速发展的15年后再把它看作正在面临新的挑战。
不可取代的事实是，所有的表演都真正地向观众展示了行为表演的广泛实践，涉及从源于戏剧性的语言到仪式化的表演，甚至包括聚焦于直接使用身体进行艺术创作的作品。正因此，清理出了行为艺术演变成新提出的“现场艺术实践”的一个部分的线路，可以想象“现场艺术实践”已经使那些直接以时间、空间和动作创作的艺术家产生了关注。当行为艺术实践在中国还面临许多争论的时候，与整个亚洲的许多其他国家一样，如此广泛推介行为艺术实践的活动仍然很重要。
这也是在“大道现场艺术节”研讨会期间讨论的一个主要话题。在这里变得很清楚的是，为了激励行为艺术实践在全球探讨的形成，首要的任务是探讨在不同文化传统中实践的特殊本土脉络，特别是亚洲不同国家行为艺术的实践。因为不像许多欧洲和北美国家，行为艺术在亚洲许多国家甚至缺乏一个明显的常规依据，致使行为艺术家几乎不可能把他们的作品变成他们各自国家当代艺术实践话题的一部分。
因此对于行为艺术来说，在教授艺术实践的群体和在每个国家负责艺术的公共代表的群体中，首先使之获得作为当代艺术形式的承认变得很重要。只有这样行为艺术实践才能获得更加广泛的观众。这将使这些国际行为艺术节的主办者们，能够有希望为这些艺术节扩展更为深远的空间。当这些活动在更广泛的公众领域里举办的时候，行为艺术家们也将以超越更个人化的对话和为他们的作品发现更全面的参照，更深入地在不同公共环境中运作，并吸引广泛的本土观众群体的关注。
2nd Dadao Live Art Festival @ SOHO
Report: Thomas J. Berghuis
In July performance art in China reached new international heights. The 2nd Dadao Live Art Festival proved that performance art is alive, and more than ever able to open up new ways public representation of its practices to take place in China. Those issues that usually bring up discussions about performance art being too shocking were overwhelmed by the high quality of the works. At the same time many people in China have proved again that they will offer performance a change to become part of a national discourse on art practices in China. This could certainly be seen in many of the views that were expressed during the course of the festival including in the media reports following the first day of performances.
The 2nd Dadao Live Art Festival was held for 5 days, from 13 to 17 July. To my own surprise the location that was chosen for the festival was not some remote space out in the countryside of Beijing, but the SOHO business complex opposite the China World Trade Centre. This is in itself a great sign of improvement of the public opinion towards performance and one therefore has to give credit to the managers of this complex for their support in promoting new and challenging forms of art practices in China. Surely, even some people at the Dashanzi art district can learn from this experience, by reflecting back on their decision to ban open forms of performance art practices from its premises. Unlike some of the space managers at 798 who recently tried openly to prevent performance art practices from taking place at the Dashanzi International Art Festival, those in charge of the SOHO complex have clearly proven their capability and interest in hosting even the most challenging forms of contemporary art practices.
The fact that this event became held at the SOHO complex further posed interesting challenges to the artists. In particular for the foreign artists, many of whom were disappointed in the location, which did not seem able to reflect their initial expectations of Beijing. They suddenly had to wake up to the fact that Beijing has changed over the past decade, and art has now taken its position in the market. Therefore the new challenges for the arts can no longer be played out solely on such historic locations as the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, nor in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square. The fact that SOHO is located just of the China World Trade Centre and amidst some of the most ambitious high-rise construction projects in the City requires artists to focus on the shifting paradigm that has encompassed new modern life in the metropolis. Perhaps it is true that many artists, and in particular those coming from overseas and visit Beijing for the first time, still find it difficult to come to terms with the new challenges that China is facing, following fifteen years of rapid economic development.
This does not take away the fact that all of the performances worked really well in introducing audiences to a wide range of performance practices, ranging from those that derive their language from theatrical references, to more ritualistic performance pieces, and even incorporating works that focus more on the direct use of body in the creation of art. As such, it managed to clear the road for performance art to become part of a new discourse on ‘live art practices’ that envisions increased attention for artists whose work are dealing directly with issues of time, space, and embodied action through their practices. As performance art practices in China is still facing much discussion in China, as well as in many other countries across Asia, it is therefore still important for these events to pose such very broad ranging introductions to performance art practices.
This was also one of the main topics discussed in the accompanying symposium during the festival. Here it became also clear that in order to stimulate the construction of a global discourse on performance art practices, it is first of all necessary to come to terms with the specific local contexts of its practices in different cultural traditions. Especially when dealing with performance art practices in different countries in Asia. For, unlike many countries in Europe and North America, performance art does not even have a clear institutional basis in many countries across Asia, which makes it almost impossible for performance artists to have their work become part of the discourse of contemporary art practice in their own respective countries.
Therefore, it becomes important for performance art to first receive recognition as a contemporary art form, both within institutions that teach art practices and those institutions that are in charge of the public representations of art in each of these countries. Only then performance art practices can move on to reach much wider audiences. This will hopefully enable organizers of these international performance art festivals to widen up the space for these festivals even further. Once these events are to be held into more extensive public domains, performance artists will also become able to challenge their works even further by transcending some of the more personalized dialogues and finding more complex references for their works to operate inside different public environments and attract attention from a wider group of local audiences.
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