In addition, three curated video ensembles of nine screens each present the work of different generations of performers. On view are combinations of videos, interviews, and performance documentation unearthed by various collectors. The central projection screen is intended for curated video programmes and lectures only. The high walls feature theme clouds containing graphic elements on each of the exhibition’s seven themes.

Team video ensembles: Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, Iris Ganz mit Lea Rüegg, Ursula Scherrer, Barbara Naegelin, Carlota Ribi
Theme clouds: Lena Eriksson, Martina Gmür, Jim Osthaarchic, Chris Regn
Stage elements: Produktion Alte Tiere hochgestapelt Theater Basel

Viewing Stations
November 2021 saw the launch of a digital platform for the collection and publication of performance art records and material. The platform is accessed via the media library. All those involved are called upon to upload their materials, concepts, photos, and videos directly, and so to make them available to all. This material, which can be viewed and searched in its entirety here in the Panorama Room, forms the basis of the whole exhibition and of the screen ensembles. Projections and curated screens allow the material to be accessed thematically as well.
>> Access to the online collection

Poster Presentation
The posters present the work of researchers, archives, initiatives, institutions, and projects in a highly condensed form. Some groups will provide still more inputs as the exhibition progresses.
Posters | Networking Performance Art Histories; What is Performance? Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge (HKB Bern); Flüchtiges Sammeln (HSLU Luzern); Interviews. Oral History in Contemporary Art; SAPA, 3 Research and archiving projects: Hasena (Peter Trachsel), F+F, Serge Stauffer; Archives Ecart; OVRA Archives; PANCH – Performance Art Netzwerk CH; PANCH AG Performative Archive; Kunstkredit BS; The Art of Intervention (Universität Basel, Zentrum Gender Studies)

The Study
The Study is an invitation to conduct research in the library and in the whole Panorama Room. The aim is to enable inspired text production of all kinds.

The Studio
The Studio is a video and audio space. It also houses works that require an unusual situation or special sound effects. The Studio can also be used for photo-portrait series and live interviews with performers.

Portrait series | Eliane Rutishauser, Ancestral portrait gallery; on registration until 12 noon the day before by mail: assistant@elianerutishauser.notexisting@nodomain.comcom
Interviews | Chris Regn, Dorothea Rust

At meetings convened together with local hosts in Bern, St. Gallen, Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Lucerne, and Zurich the protagonists of several different performance art scenes and generations of performers shared reminiscences. The various movements and their activities from the early days of the medium to the present were then charted in all their breadth and diversity in the form of regional maps. Around 30 protagonists were then interviewed either individually or in groups and these conversations recorded on video. The BANG BANG online portal at the HGK FHNW media library was launched at around the same time. Artists and impresarios were then called upon to upload performance documents selected according to their own criteria and to make these publicly available for envisioning, exhibiting, and archiving purposes.
What makes this community project so special is its fundamentally democratic approach: everyone can claim a place in the history being written, everyone can provide what they regard as historically relevant reference materials and visuals. Not only does this reveal heterogeneous ways of seeing, but even the data themselves are heterogeneous. They range from single contributions to entries that illustrate whole festivals with multiple performances. Some 1500 entries with over 14,000 single items have been submitted to date. These cover a historical period from the precursors of performance in the years 1901 to 1964 all the way up to the 1990s and the present. The plan is to collaborate with our partners, info-age GmbH and the HKG FHNW media library to keep the database public, which means that metadata will be made accessible to the community via the HGK FHNW media library – and probably Wikidata, too.

>> Online portal

ECHO & VERSTÄRKUNG
As performance art is often shown only on the institutional fringes or in certain situations, its accessibility, diversity, and urgency are not always adequately conveyed or appreciated. On the contrary, performance art is still regarded as cumbersome, incomprehensible, or as an obscure art form for insiders only. Yet its potential for involving a curious audience in a lively, interactive experience is almost inexhaustible. Contrary to what many people think, performance art is exceptionally direct and engaging, and since it often consists of clear, unambiguous actions, tends to be surprisingly easy to grasp. The dividing line between professional actors and their audiences is never sharply drawn and there are countless possibilities for involving spectators within this border zone.
Echo & Verstärkung supplements Museum Tinguely’s existing education and outreach activities by giving centre stage to the direct participation of all those present. The aim is to enter into a creative give and take in a wide range of media based on the performative events held under BANG BANG’s auspices. Echo & Verstärkung apprehends participants as authors, whose engagement culminates in products and works, which in their turn may influence the discourse.

The formats are as follows: 

• The Lobby (low key, in the park)
• Writing, drawing, formulation, and ceramic formations
•  (advanced booking required by 12 pm on the previous day: cr@existenzundprodukt.notexisting@nodomain.comch)
• The Mundraub Method (souvenirs for all)
• Interviews with performance artists
• Megazin 1-7 (a fast-tracked magazine)
• Wiki – online presence (writing workshop on 7 August 2022)
• Webzine (project blog: revolving-histories.ch)

ANCESTERAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
The Ancestral Gallery is a series of portraits by Eliane Rutishauser with Swiss performance artists. The aim is to render visible the diversity of today’s performance art scenes. Eliane Rutishauser has been photographing performance art for many years from many different angles and on many different occasions, whether as an artist who does performance herself, as a photographer who records performance events, or as an image-maker seeking material for her own projects. In her Ancestral Gallery she focuses on shedding light on the different performance scenes and the pose that alternates between representation and self-revelation.
Advanced booking required: assistant@elianerutishauser.notexisting@nodomain.comcom

LUMPEN STATION – TALKING GAZES
Radio Lumpen Station reports live from Museum Tinguely after each of the live events on BANG BANG’s seven themes. Each live report gives a different group a chance to offer feedback, to share their impressions of the BANG BANG performances, and to put forward arguments and views of what the future holds. TALKING GAZES aims to disseminate perspectives and ways of seeing and to promote the reception of performance art as an art form that relates wholly to the instant of its happening. At the end of the exhibition, this series of radio programmes will provide an overview of the most important themes explored during BANG BANG.
Team Lumpen Station: Andrea Marioni, Mathilde Beetschen, Ivan Chrichton, Luke Archer
Possible groups of people as observers: e.g. scientists, art students, artists who are not performers, curators, visitors...

PUBLICATION REVOLVING HISTORIES
The BANG BANG research and exhibition project at Museum Tinguely in the summer of 2022 will be followed by a print and online publication that is scheduled to appear in 2024/2025. The events in the exhibition will be carefully followed up and documented much like an ‘open studio’ event. Photographs, videos, drawings, texts, and products made by the artists and protagonists themselves will have a lasting impact on our memories and discourse. Enriched with the collective energy and experience of the exhibition, the translocal performance stories clearly have the potential for many new chapters to come.