Extreme performance art

Since the beginning of Dadaism in the Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich in 1916, many artists have experimented with extreme performance art as a critique of contemporary consumer culture. Some have used bodily fluids such as blood, faeces and urine. Other times they perform self-mutilation. Simulated (artificial) blood has also been used.^[1] In the 1960s and 1970s extreme performance was elevated to a movement with the Viennese actionists. In recent times there has been a resurgence in extreme performance as a response to the increasing alienation some artists feel in the face of today's technological advances.

Artists

Some contemporary artists using extreme performance include:

• Ron Athey^[2]
• Abel Azcona^[3]
• Franko B^[4]
• Bob Flanagan^[5]
• Yang Zhichao^[6]
• Rocío Boliver
• monochrom, e.g. Eignblunzn, Buried Alive (performance)