DOI issue:
Zwrot kinematograficzny w praktyce i teorii sztuki / The Cinematic Turn in Art Practice and Theory
DOI article:Bovier, François: Tony Morgan's "Performative" cinema in the age of the "cinematic turn": "relational films" (1996-1970), "structural films" (1969-1971) and produkt cinema (1971)
Citation link:https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/artium_quaestiones2020/0102
96 François Bovier
More generally Tony Morgan explicitly classified all his activities under the
heading of idiocy as the only authentic "being there" (his "Manifesto for a The-
atre of Idiots" is proof enough of this66), arguing for "fooling" as a means of rev-
elation (his declaration of intent can be summed up in one word - "Fooling"67).
As Tony Morgan noted in a seminal text in 1976, the "media-being",
much like the performance or the event presupposes invention and a present
being at the instant of this invention which escapes any prior conception:
Creation of media-being - someone with a face that I could look at in a separate
way Perhaps this is schizoid but I needed some kind of objective distance from my
emotional upheavals and moods. ... My performances are about 'seeing', seeing
what is already there more and more clearly So, often, the full motivation of the
performance is not understood or known at the instant a piece is conceived. Reali-
sation is not fulfilling something conceived. Realisation is another reality with its
own magical doors.68
His work is characterised by displacement or a general shift, between fig-
ures, genres, cultural spaces and mediums. The gesture at the root of his ar-
tistic practice is literally that of a shift. This can be seen in the walk that took
him from London to Rome, documented by one photograph [London Rome
Walk, 1960) and attested by an interview with BBC journalist John Burns
upon his arrival in Rome69. The performative dimension of Tony Morgan's
artistic gesture finds hyperbolic expression in his series of performances en-
titled Between70. These temporary exhibitions, based on the lightning flash
66 Tony Morgan wrote: "The Idiot or Idiocy has been for centuries the only true
non-hypocritical critic of society for he has no character or personality to defend or uphold.
He does not fight against unreason for he is beyond reason. ... The Idiot is not outside of us
but inside. The Fool, the Idiot is that part of us we have been taught to have under control.
It is only by daring to confront our established characters, personalities that we will unearth
our own Fool our own Idiocies." ("Manifesto for a Theater of Idiots", 16 March 1979, tran-
script, TM Studio.)
67 "Looking in the mirror at Etienne Decroux Mime School I saw someone 'fooling',
trying to be what he was not. Laughing at my self - alone: laughing at myself with others.
A slow objectivisation of fooling. At Decroux I was fooling myself -1 couldn't stop laughing
at the antics of the fool trying to imitate Decroux. I must work positively with what I have
discovered at Decroux. To fool. It is in the trying that lies the true self." ("Fooling", 1978.)
68 See T. Morgan, "Notes on Magical Doors", July 1976, Amsterdam, transcript, n. p.
69 In this respect, see C.-H. Tatot, "Herman in Pursuit, An Enlightened Retrospec-
tion", in: Tony Morgan, 1960-1977. Who the Hell Is Herman?, p. 12.
70 See R. Buschmann, Chronik einer Nicht-Austeilung Between 1969-1973 in der
Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Berlin 2006.
More generally Tony Morgan explicitly classified all his activities under the
heading of idiocy as the only authentic "being there" (his "Manifesto for a The-
atre of Idiots" is proof enough of this66), arguing for "fooling" as a means of rev-
elation (his declaration of intent can be summed up in one word - "Fooling"67).
As Tony Morgan noted in a seminal text in 1976, the "media-being",
much like the performance or the event presupposes invention and a present
being at the instant of this invention which escapes any prior conception:
Creation of media-being - someone with a face that I could look at in a separate
way Perhaps this is schizoid but I needed some kind of objective distance from my
emotional upheavals and moods. ... My performances are about 'seeing', seeing
what is already there more and more clearly So, often, the full motivation of the
performance is not understood or known at the instant a piece is conceived. Reali-
sation is not fulfilling something conceived. Realisation is another reality with its
own magical doors.68
His work is characterised by displacement or a general shift, between fig-
ures, genres, cultural spaces and mediums. The gesture at the root of his ar-
tistic practice is literally that of a shift. This can be seen in the walk that took
him from London to Rome, documented by one photograph [London Rome
Walk, 1960) and attested by an interview with BBC journalist John Burns
upon his arrival in Rome69. The performative dimension of Tony Morgan's
artistic gesture finds hyperbolic expression in his series of performances en-
titled Between70. These temporary exhibitions, based on the lightning flash
66 Tony Morgan wrote: "The Idiot or Idiocy has been for centuries the only true
non-hypocritical critic of society for he has no character or personality to defend or uphold.
He does not fight against unreason for he is beyond reason. ... The Idiot is not outside of us
but inside. The Fool, the Idiot is that part of us we have been taught to have under control.
It is only by daring to confront our established characters, personalities that we will unearth
our own Fool our own Idiocies." ("Manifesto for a Theater of Idiots", 16 March 1979, tran-
script, TM Studio.)
67 "Looking in the mirror at Etienne Decroux Mime School I saw someone 'fooling',
trying to be what he was not. Laughing at my self - alone: laughing at myself with others.
A slow objectivisation of fooling. At Decroux I was fooling myself -1 couldn't stop laughing
at the antics of the fool trying to imitate Decroux. I must work positively with what I have
discovered at Decroux. To fool. It is in the trying that lies the true self." ("Fooling", 1978.)
68 See T. Morgan, "Notes on Magical Doors", July 1976, Amsterdam, transcript, n. p.
69 In this respect, see C.-H. Tatot, "Herman in Pursuit, An Enlightened Retrospec-
tion", in: Tony Morgan, 1960-1977. Who the Hell Is Herman?, p. 12.
70 See R. Buschmann, Chronik einer Nicht-Austeilung Between 1969-1973 in der
Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Berlin 2006.