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[text] Vito A cconci

Vito A cconci : Following Piece, 1969
[O ct. 3-25, 1969, Activity, "Stre e t W ork s IV-Program , organize d by the Archite ctural Le ague , Ne w York ]
by Drte Zbik owsk i
Alongside Bruce Naum an, Vito Acconci is one of those US artists whose action act in the late 1960s was re fe rre d to with the
ne w labe l of Art Pe rform ance . Acconci de scribe s the be ginning of this ne w type of action art as follows: W e did not want
the re m ote isolation of the the ate r, atte nde d only by the initiate , in which only abstractions of the world and not the dirty
world itse lf was shown. W e chose as our m otto the song: W hy don't we do it on the road? [1]
Acconci, who until the n had be e n active as a poe t, starte d as of 1969 to him se lf pe rform what he would othe rwise have
writte n. Through to 1972 he de ve lope d ove r 200 conce ptually structure d and radical body-re late d pie ce s and pe rform ance s,
that we re e x tre m e ly sim ple in form al te rm s, but psychologically highly intricate . The took place in part with and in part
without the audie nce and we re docum e nte d in photos and film s. Many of the m we re pe rform e d on the stre e ts of Ne w York ,
othe rs in inte riors, above all galle rie s. His pe rform ance s stand out for the use and e x pe rie nce of his own body, as we ll as
the re fle ction on and re de finition of the re lationship be twe e n public and private sphe re s. By disappe aring in the anonym ity
of the stre e ts Acconci not only pe ne trate s re al space , but also e sse ntially e nde avors to inte grate art into e ve ryday life ,
such that art itse lf disappe ars.
Following Piece is one of his e arly work s. The unde rlying ide a was to se le ct a pe rson from the passe rs-by who we re by
chance walk ing by and to follow the pe rson until he or she disappe are d into a private place whe re Acconci could not e nte r.
The act of following could last a fe w m inute s, if the pe rson the n got into a car, or four or five hours, if the pe rson we nt to a
cine m a or re staurant. Acconci carrie d out this pe rform ance e ve ryday for a m onth. And he type d up an account of e ach
'pursuit', se nding it e ach tim e to a diffe re nt m e m be r of the art com m unity.
Two e x pe rie nce s he re we re crucial. During the act of following, Acconci subm itte d his subje ctive will to the m ove m e nts of
the pe rson followe d. And he thus pe ne trate d a private sphe re e ve n though he m ove d in the public dom ain. Acconci
de m onstrate d that the urban public space is de fine d by the random e ncounte rs be twe e n pe ople that tak e place within it. At
the sam e tim e , he pre se nts us the city stre e t as a space whe re civil prote ction pote ntially bre ak s down.
This pe rform ance is of spe cial significance as he re Acconci for the first tim e de fe rre d from him se lf de fining what course the
pe rform ance would tak e . Inste ad, he accorde d an im portant role to the participation of outside rs. I m ade m y art by using
othe r pe ople . In Following Piece, the conce pt of the participation of pe rsons who did not spe cifically agre e to participate
re lie d on pe rsons who did not e ve n k now that the y we re be ing use d.
The actual pie ce of art unrave le d without any one noticing. All the m ore im portant was that e ach pie ce was pre se nte d to a
broade r audie nce in the form of the type writte n re cords and the photographs. The se form a constitutive part of the artwork .

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Acconci him se lf com m e nts: I think for a lot of us whose work be gan at the e nd of the 60s the re was a com m on
assum ption, the que stion is: is the re a way to counte r the notion of art as unique obje ct? [...] In othe r words, pe ople in
ge ne ral we re think ing of art as a k ind of distribution syste m m ore than as unique obje ct, a k ind of ne wspape r re port. [...]
So whe n I was doing a pie ce lik e Following Piece, the re was no vie we r or, if anything, I was the vie we r. [...] I de signe d in the
way a ne wspape r e ve nt is de signe d. [2]
The aim was to ove rcom e the dividing line be twe e n artist and be holde r/audie nce . O n pe rform ance close ly re late d to the
conce pt unde rlying Following Piece is Proximity Piece (Room Situation) dating from 1970. He re , it is not the public space of the
stre e t but that of the m use um in which Acconci we nt into action. He snuck up to vie we rs and stood unple asantly close to
the m . By violating the socially de fine d borde rs of pe rsonal distance , he drove the pe rson in que stion into a corne r. He
indire ctly force d the m to turn away and le ave . [3]
Violations of taboos and stage d inte ractions, e vok e d, for e x am ple , by m e ans of his own pe rson or involving outside
pe rsons, are lik e wise to be found in pe rform ance s such as Untitled Project (Piece for Pier 17), which focuse d on the e x posure
of unple asant or e m barrassing se cre ts, and Se curity Zone , which took as its topic proof of trust shown toward utte r
strange rs. He re , Acconci incre asingly accorde d the vie we r a m ore im portant role until, in his Command Performance [1974]
the be holde r donne d the role of the artist and the pe rson of the artist withdre w from the work s. In Command Piece you he ar
the artist calling on the vie we r to pe rform ce rtain actions and to the n fe e l im portant [You'll ce rtainly look gre at the re .]. In
the conte x t of inte racting with the audie nce , Acconci state d that his work s had "hithe rto be e n too private ... I was afraid of
going be yond m yse lf ... and discove ring the world ... you can show m e , how strong you are ... big ... public. [4] Acconci
thus cause d a confrontation in which the vie we r was m anipulate d as a prop in a saidstic gam e , while the othe r vie we rs
watche d this voye uristically on a se cond scre e n.
1 Vito Acconci, Pe rform ance afte r the Fact, in Documents sur lArt Contemporain, N. Bourriaud,, Paris, 1992. ^
2 Flore nce Gilbard, An Inte rvie w with Vito Acconci. Vide owork s 1970-1978, in Afterimage, vol. 12, no. 4, 1984, p. 9. ^
3 Se e the e x hibition Software, Je wish Muse um , Ne w York , Se pte m be r 1970. ^
4 Vito Acconci, quote d from Kate Link e r, Vito Acconci, Ne w York 1994, pp. 61-2. ^
^

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