Collecting Choreographed Performances

“We acquired a work that carries the possibility of extinction”

Abstract

This paper is about choreographed performances entering museum collections and the challenges this presents to the museum world. The museum has long been an institution meant to collect tangible art (MACDONALD, 2011; SHELTON, 2013; VERGO, 1989 a.o.). Thus, I was keen to find out how institutions are adjusting to the immateriality of dance entering the museum (BISHOP, 2014b). To that end, I referred to the concept of docile and unruly museum objects (DOMÍNGUEZ RUBIO, 2014) and derived from Andre Lepecki’s choreographic concepts: corporeality, ephemerality, scoring and performativity (LEPECKI, 2017). Inquiring about the approaches followed by museums in order to include choreographed performances in their permanent collections was done on the example of two cases: Staging: solo by Maria Hassabi (2017), which was acquired by the Walker Art Center in 2018 and Punt.Point by Sara Wookey in collaboration with Rennie Tang (2013), acquired by the Van Abbemuseum in 2018. This research inquiries about acquisition strategies are implemented by museums, in order to make unruly choreographed performances docile. Through studying the institutionalisation process of two choreographed performances, it provides a new understanding of collecting dance in the fields of museum studies and performance studies. One of my main findings was that most strategies implemented by the acquiring institutions strive to separate the artwork from the artist, in order to be able to control it better. Furthermore, I found that the institution’s character and identity play a vital role in the decision to enter the long process of acquiring a choreographed performance. The efforts required for this decision are enhanced by the inherent contradiction of acquiring an artwork with no material substance.